L0pht in Transition
L0pht in Transition is a feature I wrote for CSO magazine on the L0pht, a prominent information security research collective in the 1990s. I was interested in them as a symbol for the security industry itself. In addition, I wanted to show something of the hacker as human being, instead of mystery nerd.
Space Rogue pointed me to a comment on this article by Jason Scott, founder of the BBS “The Works.” Jason says, in part:
“…the amount of facts or descriptions that are correct is quite amazing, considering the natural distrust of the press many members might have at this point of time.”
I found that the five L0phties I interviewed enjoyed talking about the l0pht and their involvement with it. A sixth, Silicosis, gave me encouragement, though he was unable to be formally interviewed. The only l0pht member I contacted who did not respond in some form was John Tan (which is unfortunate because it meant that I had no good way to work in the story about the time he did his own dental surgery).