%41%43%45%20%54%65%61%6d : hackers

Mark Curphey joins Microsoft's ACE Team

techjunkie — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:25:00 GMT

We're super excited to have Mark aboard, Mark was formerly running FoundStone Consulting and also founded OWASP. Here's Mark's note about joining and you can also check out Mark's own blog here.

-techjunkie

Welcome, finally.

techjunkie — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:04:00 GMT

Over the last several weeks after launching this blog we’ve had several logistical issues to deal with and I’m hoping all of those are now addressed so we can get on with what you’ve been asking for, some great content!! Initially I had named the blog “hackers @ Microsoft” and tried to be pretty clear on the point that when we’re talking about hackers, we’re talking strictly white hat, legal and ethical hackers. However there was some concerns raised that the average blog reading audience may not be able to discern the difference, and we may inadvertently associate Microsoft with the negative connotations of the word “hacker” that is out there.
So to alleviate that concern, I’ve changed the name of the blog to “%41%43%45%20%54%65%61%6d”. Most of you should know what that is, some of you may have to guess.

We’re going to get underway quickly; we have many interesting things to talk about.

Thanks for your patience!

-techjunkie

Update

techjunkie — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 22:44:00 GMT

Thank you all for the tremendous response and support. I've gotten so many of your messages that I've not been able to respond to them all individually. We are working through some logistical issues but look forward to getting things going very soon. Please continue watching this space or subscribe!

Thanks,

techjunkie - 9/15/07

welcome to a different kind of blog from microsoft

techjunkie — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 09:31:00 GMT

Hello world.

Welcome to a new blog from Microsoft. The focus of this blog is likely to be a little different from most other blogs you'll see on blogs.msdn.com. Microsoft employs some of the best hackers in the world and actively recruits them and develops them. They work on all kinds of projects, whether it be in development, research, testing, management and of course security. Of course, there is controversy even in the word "hacker" but I don't think that should stop us from using it in the manner I think is the most appropriate. At his or her core, a true hacker is someone who is curious and wants to learn how systems work. This can and of course at Microsoft is done in an ethical, legal manner. We employ "white hat hackers" who spend their time pentesting and code reviewing applications and software looking for weaknesses and vulnerabilities so that others don't once we've released that code into the wild. We employ many many smart testers who know more about some of our software then perhaps the architects who designed it. We also employ some of the top researchers in their industry, dedicated people working on the bleeding edge of whats going to be common place in the next 5 or 10 years of computing. So yes, Microsoft does have hackers, and its time to introduce you to some of them and show you what it is, exactly that they do.

Generally most of the content you'll read and people you'll meet on this blog will be somehow related to security but not all by any stretch.

-techjunkie