From: Mike Messick (mikemtridigitalenterprises.com)
Date: Fri Jul 17 2009 - 21:19:33 CDT

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A couple of thoughts on this:

Sometimes employers prohibit employees from using their real names if it
can tie them back to where they work, for legal and other reasons (like
people associating the employer with the researcher even though the
researcher did all work on their own time.) Some employers cannot afford
to have this happen because of the public perception that the employer
somehow sponsored the work.

Imagine if I work for the FBI and in my own time I develop some way to
crack wireless networks in very short order. Even though my employer had
no participation in this effort, when someone "discovers" where I work
and it gets slogged through Wired or /. the entire world then thinks the
Feds are out to get them.

I have several friends who perform some amazing security research and due
to where they work they are not able to use their real names when
releasing findings/products to the community. I have yet to find
anything underhanded about them, their work, or their employer.

Hope this helps,
-Mike.

On Fri, 17 Jul 2009, Adriel T. Desautels wrote:

> You are an individual researcher. And why might I ask do you need to
> hide behind an alias? If you
> do research that is both legal and ethical and if you follow the best
> practices that you can follow, then
> why wouldn't you want your name associated with your hard work?
>
>
> On Jul 17, 2009, at 8:21 PM, Stack Smasher wrote:
>
> >
> > I think this discussion is seriously flawed. I am a security
> > researcher who uses several different online aliases when I am
> > interviewed so I can speak without the fear of corporate or legal
> > repercussions. My professional person is never tied to my online
> > presence.
> >
> >
> > I like it better that way.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 7:05 PM, Tim <tim-
> > pentestsentinelchicken.org> wrote:
> > > Anyway, I didn't say Only use facebook did I? Use any means
> > > possible. Bottom line is though, if the company has researchers,
> > then
> > > the company will have published advisories. If they've done that,
> > then
> > > you should be able to get a good idea of their capability by doing
> > > research on their research.
> >
> > Yeah, I agree that something novel should be getting generated.
> > Perhaps a better way to go about obtaining it, is simply to ask your
> > vendor what research their consultants have published. For instance
> > most of what I publish isn't tied directly to my company as I do quite
> > a bit of it on my own time.
> >
> >
> > > Btw, if you comment on the blog, I might post it. :)
> >
> > Call me old school, but I actually like mailing lists...
> >
> > cheers,
> > tim
> >
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> > --
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> >
> >
>
>
>
> Adriel T. Desautels
> ad_listsnetragard.com
> --------------------------------------
>
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> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Prove to peers and potential employers without a doubt that you can actually do a proper penetration test. IACRB CPT and CEPT certs require a full practical examination in order to become certified.

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