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by ufmace 2115 days ago
Technically true, but kind of ridiculous. How many people can't get food, but have a computer, electricity, internet connection, a reasonably quiet place to work, deep knowledge of web technology, and enough free time and mental energy to try to build exploits of computer software against an uncertain and distant bug bounty payout? If you're really desperate for food, you should be looking for a salaried position or something more immediate and certain.

More importantly, human history shows that ethics really are important. If you ignore ethics in the name of people starving, you build a society where even more people suffer and starve. If you want to build a society where everybody is safe and healthy, you need to pay attention to ethics now, not "someday".

1 comments

Lots. Many more than you’d expect. To believe otherwise is privilege.

It took many years to understand this.

Dude, if somebody out there somewhere is seriously doing that, they really need some education in effective careers to pursue. That's a lot more likely to improve their lives than complaints about the social effects of the size of bug bounty payouts.

Speaking of privilege, how much privilege is there in believing that ethics aren't important, because you don't know what it's like to live in a place that never even pretended to care about it, and get robbed on a routine basis, because a bunch of other people around you don't care about ethics either, and would rather form a gang and smash anybody who has something they want than work to build a marketable skill?

That is the world you build when you advocate for people not paying attention to the harms of releasing exploits into the wild, because it might pay better than doing the right thing.

I'm sure you didn't mean to but telling people who are doing the best they can with the tools that they have that they "really need some education" comes across as incredibly condescending. It's been my experience that you will have a hard time convincing other people if you tell them things that way.