Security Architecture, Endpoint/Device Security, Endpoint/Device Security, Governance, Risk and Compliance, Compliance Management, Privacy, Endpoint/Device Security, Endpoint/Device Security, Endpoint/Device Security

Survey: Hackers believe strongly in privacy… unless they’re paid to crack passwords

Thycotic Hacker Survey Report 2016

In a survey conducted at the 2016 Black Hat conference, four out of five hackers agreed that Apple was right to refuse the FBI's request for a backdoor into the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone.

Yet 52 percent of respondents said they would help the FBI crack an iPhone's password for a fee, and another nine percent said they would do it for free.

According to the Hacker Survey Report – conducted by privileged account management company Thycotic – 75 percent of respondents said that they strongly believe people deserve data protection, security and privacy (while 100 percent at least "somewhat believe" this). But in contrast to these values, 18 percent of respondents would help the government break into a phone for $1 million or less, while 23 percent would cooperate if the price was $100 million or above.

In a rather bleak outlook, 77 percent of polled hackers said they believe no password is safe from hackers. The survey will be released next week, but was shared in advance with SCMagazine.com.

Bradley Barth

As director of multimedia content strategy at CyberRisk Alliance, Bradley Barth develops content for online conferences, webcasts, podcasts video/multimedia projects — often serving as moderator or host. For nearly six years, he wrote and reported for SC Media as deputy editor and, before that, senior reporter. He was previously a program executive with the tech-focused PR firm Voxus. Past journalistic experience includes stints as business editor at Executive Technology, a staff writer at New York Sportscene and a freelance journalist covering travel and entertainment. In his spare time, Bradley also writes screenplays.

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