Then
"We did this InfoWar Con in Brussels [1996] and accidentally hacked a real university during a live demo. We shut the demo down immediately."
-- Winn Schwartau, educator/speaker/trainer in information security and InfoWar since the 1980s.
"The way Microsoft implemented cryptographic hiding of passwords, all passwords can be tested and cracked in weeks or days in brute force mode. Over the years, as optimized, L0phtcrack will crack passwords in a matter of minutes."
-- Mudge, in 1997, presenting the L0pht's Windows LAN Manager password cracking tool at HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth) in New York.
"This code is for something called a 'Trojan Horse.' This is really cool: It turns the security settings in the browser from 'high' to 'none.' With that, we can load anything on."
-- "Modify" from the Strife hacking group in summer 1996, while explaining code printed on a dot-matrix printout at a food court in a shopping mall precariously close to the NSA headquarters.
Now
"There is currency associated with online personas. Social currency perpetuates an interest in impersonation. There are tools that can easily facilitate impersonation: Twitter, Facebook and Myspace are some of them."
-- Alex Mittal, co-founder, Crederity, an online identity verification service.
"Cybercrime has become an enterprise that's run very professionally. Fortunately, we have a justice system that's gotten more technically up to speed, as well."
-- Phil Neray, VP of security strategy at Guardium, a database security/compliance company.
"I had a security exec at a large financial institution tell me that until it costs them more to underwrite financial loss from fraud than to purchase a system to prevent fraud, they won't make that purchase."
-- Steve Dispensia, CTO of Dispensia, which provides authentication to account holders through cell phone verification, as well as other factors.
