One thing that people do not associate together are hackers and being social.
The typical stereotype of a hacker is the lone rogue in his mothers basement, trying to take over the world with his keyboard.
This is an outdated reference and nothing could be further from the truth.
The reality is you would not be able to tell a hacker from a normal person walking down the street.
Yes, there are a lot of traditional geeks still involved but the world of computer research and hacking has been quite diverse for awhile.
There are people that used to be considered jocks now in the community.
Also minorities and females represent a small, but growing number in the community as well.
You Can No Longer Stereotype Hackers Or Security Pros
There is no stereotype that can accurately depict the typical hacker.
Since being social is no longer a problem, every year there have been more and more computer security conferences popping up.
This gives people in the industry the rare opportunity to socialize with others in the same industry besides their co workers.
When someone that is in the computer security profession goes to one of these conferences, they have a good chance of meeting someone that is on the other side of the legality line.
There are black, white, and grey hat hackers that visit these conferences.
They are all there for the same thing, to socialize with people of like minded interest as well as learn new techniques and attacks.
The ability to mingle with someone from the opposing side brings a great opportunity to learn how the others brain works.
Both the good guys and the bad guys get a chance to learn something new about their opponent.
Security Conferences
There are new conferences popping up all of the time.
They range in popularity from the mainstream conferences such as def con and blackhat, to the rare and obscure such as shmoocon and Notacon.
Some of the most well reviewed conferences to go to consist of Def con, Toorcon, Chaos Communication Conference, and for the more serious, business minded security professional, the Blackhat technical security conference.
All of these conferences, every year, have interesting presenters and will usually teach you something that you didn’t know before you went in.
The knowledge that these people have been gathering for one or more years, is all of the sudden released to the world at these conferences.
If you are in the computer security profession, you should try to visit at least one of these conferences this year.
You are sure to learn something new but the biggest benefit will be the amount of networking that you will be able to do.
That is something that people in the security community rarely get a chance to do.
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