Chris Evans is CISO and chief hacking officer at HackerOne.
SecurityWeek's Hacker Conversations series seeks to understand the mind and motivations of hackers by talking to hackers.
Evans challenges the common perception of both hackers and their motivation.
Evans' definition of a hacker and hacking is nuanced and not mainstream.
Computer hacking becomes the creative process of improving computing.
Computer hacking is almost by definition what we commonly label 'whitehat' hacking.
These are the first two characteristics behind Evans the child hacker: deep curiosity, and a need for precise understanding.
His career after Oxford never involved chemistry - it is a luminary path through major industries to the current position as CISO and chief hacking officer at HackerOne.
Evans is hugely positive about the hacking community and its power for good.
This reality has become twisted in the computer hacker world.
We talk about ethical hackers when we should be just talking about hackers.
We've seen with other hackers in this series that curiosity with no outlet has led many young hackers to seek online communities of other curious people - often having to break the law to be able to afford the process.
Anti-hacking laws are a complex issue for computer hackers, and perhaps an area where needles are slowly being moved.
Hackers are driven to improve the property for the users' benefit.
The law exists to protect the property owner - which generally means the hacker must break the law to improve outcomes for the user, while improving the property for the owner.
No owner enjoys the accusation that his product could be harmful, so has the natural inclination to deny and denigrate the hacker.
In the early days of computer hacking, intellectual property owners used the anti-hacking laws to silence the hackers.
This is one of the advantages of the bug bounty schemes run by organizations like HackerOne and Bugcrowd: the vendor invites the hacker to hack, and good faith is clearly demonstrated.
The CISO, he believes, benefits from being a hacker in mindset, and a computer hacker in specifics.
For Chris Evans, hacking is a way of life that can be applied to any profession rather than a skill to be acquired or a label to be used.
This Cyber News was published on www.securityweek.com. Publication date: Mon, 01 Jul 2024 16:43:06 +0000