Their 8lgm advisories began marginalising the
traditional industry security reports, and helped to push the industry
toward its current, more open attitude.
Pad and Gandalf now both work, doing computer programming jobs on
contract, sometimes for financial institutions. Their clients like
them and value their work. Both have steady girlfriends.
Pad doesn't hack any more. The reason isn't the risk of getting caught
or the threat of prison. He has stopped hacking because he has
realised what a headache it is for a system administrator to clean up
his or her computer after an attack. Searching through logs. Looking
for backdoors the hacker might have left behind. The hours, the
hassle, the pressure--he thinks it is wrong to put anyone through
that. Pad understands far better now how much strain a hacker
intrusion can cause another human being.
There is another reason Pad has given up hacking: he has simply
outgrown the desire. He says that he has better things to do with his
time. Computers are a way for him to earn a living, not a way to spend
his leisure time. After a trip overseas he decided that real
travel--not its electronic cousin--was more interesting than hacking.
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