Wim Remes

Once upon a time I found myself in a London pub with a good friend of mine. Assisted by a steady flow of beer, we discussed our profession : "infosec". Now I must add that this friend is also incredibly smart, and a great person too.

They're also amazingly versatile. Apart from being a great hacker and researcher, they were also a magician, and well acquainted with the circus community. I'm drawing from memory here and I'm not as smart, great, or versatile but bear with me.

It was there and then that my friend drew the parallel between infosec and circus. Some of you may laugh, but it makes sense. Imagine you're a new person on the trapeze. It's freaking scary right, why would you?

Now ... imagine you're an experienced person on the trapeze and this new person shows up. Isn't that even scarier? If, just for a moment, you think that not sharing what you know about your craft is a great idea, that new person can be dead.

You have every incentive to share EVERYTHING you know. It gives that new person a shot (and keeps them alive) but it also creates an environment where everybody keeps advancing, perpetually.

Yes, we're a bunch of clowns sometimes. Ok, most of the time. But it's for good reason. We only keep moving forward if we keep sharing, as widely as possible.

It doesn't matter if it's offensive or defensive content. It doesn't matter if the bad guys learn from it too. If we stop sharing, we lose. It's that easy.