Offensive security research, even among white-hat hackers, has helped the community to 'think like attackers' and enhance defensive technologies. However, this research comes at a significant cost and there are new arguments emerging that the work of the benevolent security research community is driving down the cost and complexities of attacks against computer networks.
There is a growing sentiment (see link ) that the intellectual pursuit of exploiting software vulnerabilities and defeating mitigations is simply providing a roadmap for the bad guys to break into computer systems.
During this panel discussion, we will look at the argument from both sides and help the audience find the value and dangers of offensive computer research.
