"Up to Date" isn't the same as "Knowledgeable"

Eugene Spafford has a warning for us in his latest entry that I thought worth remembering:

Generally, hackers who specialize in the latest attacks dismiss anyone not versed in their tools as ignorant, so I have heard this kind of criticism before. It is still the case that the "elite" hackers who specialize in the latest penetration tools think that they are the most informed about all things security. Sadly, some decision-makers believe this too, much to their later regret, usually because they depend on penetration analysis as their primary security mechanism.

In many ways, I worry that mechanisms like RSS & twitter and the associated behaviour help us to be up to date, but not knowledgeable, and that the implied arrogance of being up to date stops us from realising it.

Posted by Dominic White