Greg Young

Some unhappy bloggers ended up on the Wall of Shame at a recent security/hackers conference and (I summarize…) cried foul because it wasn’t pre-advertised that the network would be hostile.  There is a good post on the hub-bub here.

The yin of rubbing elbows with vulnerability researchers and semi-bad guys who reveal the most recent hacks on the the unassuming comes with the yang that you are the nearby unassuming one to these semi-bad guys and vulnerability researchers. 

Blogging is the new gonzo journalism.  To those crying foul, I suggest a lesson from the gonzo-est journalist Hunter S. Thompson who while writing his book Hells Angels he enjoyed the access and excitement which he knew would sell books.  At the end of his tale when he became the unwanted object of the excitement he made that a part of the story.

The object lesson here for me is really that OPN (other people’s networks) generally give you as much security as you pay for.  OPNs are the bad part of town, and it is a good idea to change your behavior accordingly, which could include not connecting.