[boramalper]

People are also against to see an ex-spy employed by a company that promises (to some degree) to protect their customers from the abuses of such governments—there is also a moral angle to it. "Daniel has a deep understanding of the tools and techniques used by the adversaries" because, well, he was one of the adversaries. It's like a private security company employing a former criminal.

[mindcrime]

It's like a private security company employing a former criminal.

I mean... would you hire Kevin Mitnick's company? Lots of people do (apparently, considering they've been in business this long), but yet he's a former "criminal". It really is a tricky analysis. Who knows hackers better than a former hacker? But how can you trust a "former" hacker? Hmm...

[boramalper]

I agree that the analysis is tricker though I disagree that Kevin Mitnick is an appropriate example—Mitnick is quite innocent in the scale of what Gericke’s employer (Signals Intelligence Agency [SIA]) has done[0][1], even if we were to exaggerate Mitnick’s crimes.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ToTok_(app)#Surveillance_tool_...

[1] https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-spyi...

[mindcrime]

That's the reason for the quotes around "criminal" above. Mitnick turning "white hat" just happened to be the first (roughly) analogous example that popped to mind.