Netsec as a Whole

Does anybody else get the feeling that the scene has altered drastically over the past 4 years? It seems to me that hardware(especially badly configured IOT devices) seem to be what people and the media are focusing in on. As well, perhaps it is just me, but I lurk around some security forums from time to time and it just seems to be more of ... normal person skiddies begging around for account dumps(retail sites, etc) rather than any actual learning taking place whatsoever. Perhaps I have changed, but it just seems me that the scene is either full of pretentious hacks fuarrrking around with badly secured routers/switches, OR alternatively normal person skids just begging around for handouts. Thoughts?

>>4668 >Perhaps I have changed, but it just seems me that the scene is either full of pretentious hacks fuarrrking around with badly secured routers/switches, OR alternatively normal person skids just begging around for handouts I haven't been really around per se for too long in this community, but there has been a paradigm shift over the past 5-10 years. I just love lainchan because it's a lot more chill and less tryhard-y. "Anonymous" types and forums attract all kinds of skids and they have for years now. The scene is long dead; flooded with normal people and CISSP's who poop out soykafty article after soykafty article. I'm 99% sure I'm just bitter.

>>4668 Low effort communities get you low effort hackers. That has always been the case. Anyway, high quality binary exploits get posted on netsec about as often as router bugs so I wouldn't complain about it just yet. If you want something a little more "1337" you should go hang out on a specialist forum for an advanced topic like RE or exploit dev. Know what I mean?

I've noticed it too, so I just avoid that and the solution was what >>4682 has recommended. Find the parts of the scene where the focus is still on solving hard problems and go there. The Project Zero blog is a good start. Each post is tackling a hard problem, and just comprehending each write-up in full is good for you.

Whole IT sector simply got popular and that brought the usual consequences.