it depends
by
tech locksmith
·
about 17 years, 8 months ago
In reply to Would you hire a virus author?
I?ve hired felons before and I think my experience applies here, but I certainly never trusted them with much except outdoor manual labor ? I would never let them in my office or near a computer any more than I would hand them my SS# and a credit card.
In particular, most of the felons I?ve known lack both empathy and anger management tools which are essential for anyone dealing with any important
You simply can?t know what they will do when push comes to shove or when they feel ?dissed? (nor can a normal person often understand how they caused offense.)
True story – I had a very good worker who was on probation and he was always anxious to please, self-deprecating and invariably enthusiastic about any job I offered him. His probation ended on a Friday and I haven?t seen him again except for the following Monday when he showed up three hours late for work and proceeded to tell me off for all the crummy jobs I had given him.
I?m not a big fan of Dr. Phil except in two things, I too studied behavioral psychology and know that rewarding a cracker with a good job only tells them that cracking is the easiest way to get ahead. The balding doctor also keeps repeating the phrase ?the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior? which is often true.
?If we fail to learn from the past we are doomed to repeat it? is the best known quote of historian George Santayana and it?s easy to say it is simply a clich?, but that doesn?t mean it isn?t true. A clich? persists because people recognize the essential truth behind it, otherwise it would never become a clich?.
In spite of the ?romance? surrounding real hackers (I pushed the coding envelope a bit in my younger days too), there is no redeeming value in the work of those who spread worms and virus infections. They are simply vandals at best, criminals at worst.
Some sleazy businesses will hire them to do in competitors but if they do I suggest they never allow them near their place of business or they will become the next target.
If you feel you should hire an ex-virus writer because you need their skills ? go into another line of work.
If you want to hire one because you feel sorry for them, remember one final clich?: ?No good deed goes unpunished.?