An Open Letter to Geeks and Nerds (Part 2)

aloria:

Your “got root?” or “i read your email” tshirt is lame and tacky. They weren’t cute when they started showing up ten years ago, and they’re only getting more hackneyed and tired with age. You’re essentially wearing the comedic and cultural equivalent of a Garfield comic on your chest. You might as well make a shirt that says “LINUX! AMIRITE?” or “HEY GUYSE! COMPUTERS!” At the very least, it’d be less pretentious.

[…]

Is your facebook status “hacking and trolling IRC over a glass of wine?” Do you look for and take every opportunity to work in a (vague, yet obvious) mention that you’re a hacker? Then put up or shut up. Lots of people manage to be involved in Information Security without feeling compelled to constantly advertise the color of their hat. Do you see the guys at matasato or iSEC constantly tweeting about their ‘m4d 5ki11z?’ Nope, and there’s a reason for that; their work speaks for itself. People producing shit that matters either have something worthwhile to share and show it, or keep it under wraps and generally don’t advertise themselves at all. If you have over a thousand followers on twitter and haven’t released anything more insightful than “lol penetration testing” then congrats— you’re the Tila Tequila of InfoSec.

I met aloria at the last NYSec meeting, and she is a riot. Plus, I totally just got called out on my last tweet:

Deep down the rabbit hole of sekret research, drinking white wine, listening to Empire of the Sun. I love … Saturday night.

Then again, such posts are relatively rare for me, so I’m clinging to my dignity on this one.