[supermw]

IDA Pro is not expensive at all for serious professionals in the field. Other common software in the industry costs way more. Nessus is $2k a year, Metasploit like $1500 to $15000, and Core Impact is $30k and up.

If this is expensive to you, then it’s not for you. This is for people who are making real money with these tools, not hobbyists dicking around.

[vageli]

> If this is expensive to you, then it’s not for you. This is for people who are making real money with these tools, not hobbyists dicking around.

That's an odd perspective. Imagine if this type of sentiment were applied to paint brushes. There is a lot of useful work that is not economically viable per se, and to discount that and to be pejorative feels wrong.

[_jal]

It is less odd if you look at it from the perspective of a professional in the field. Being expensive (and a little mean about it) discourages potential competitors from entry.

Not necessarily nice, but it makes sense.

[supermw]

If you are using these tools you are either defending systems from threats or breaking into systems and making money through illegal activities. There is not really any other useful work you can do with these tools.

I don’t see how the perspective is odd. Having tools like Core Impact and the knowledge of how to use them well can propel you to a six figure income easily. On top of that these tools are also business expenses you can use for tax write offs.

They are certainly worth the investment. The only people who see the price as steep are those who cannot see any viable way to make a decent ROI off them.

[Godel_unicode]

Google "video game modding ida".

Then think about the fact that some people are poor and can't float thousands of dollars long enough to learn and get employed with tools like this.

[thecatspaw]

and to be quite honest, its just fun to me to reverse a program

[supermw]

I don't think about those people, here's why:

1) No one is entitled to a career in cybersecurity or reverse engineering, no matter how poor or sad your origin story is.

2) There are always lucrative opportunities in this world that are out of reach by people who lack some resource. In this case, it's money, but it could easily just have been something like popularity, beauty, connections, location, or even plain old brains.

I always wanted to be popular and loved by many, but I came to accept long ago that it just wasn't going to happen. I'm an introvert, I keep to myself a lot, don't get much pleasure from social outings, and at the end of the day people just don't give a fuck about weird people like that. So I just try to enjoy the gifts I do have and the things that come naturally to me. We all have to accept the realities of our lives at some point, even the poor.

[tomhoward]

Sorry to hear you're finding it tough. Some people find ways of becoming less constrained by their introversion, but no judgment on you for doing what works for you.

It's true that some pre-existing conditions can limit what options people have, but it doesn't apply to everything.

It's important to be discerning about when this effect applies and when it needn't, and work to open more opportunities to more people wherever possible.

[Fnoord]

If you are studying to become a (paid) professional in the field, be it offensive or defensive, having a quality, open source, free tool available which is also the defacto standard is a big plus for getting you started. Elitist will fear such competition, those with love for the field of work will endorse it.

[ShorsHammer]

What's the average wage of a cyber security professional in SE Asia or Africa compared to these tools?

[arthurcolle]

What advantages does the paid version of Metasploit offer? I have been able to do some pretty incredible stuff with the free offering...

[pvarangot]

That's enterprise penetration testing software, IDA is bench reverse engineering software. It's a totally different market.

[rapind]

I wonder if there were some mainframe "professionals" with this opinion before the advent of the personal computer.