Hacking Magazines in Singapore
I’ve noticed that more and more magazine shops have started to carry “hacking” magazines like 2600: The Hacker Quarterly and today I saw Hakin9 2/2008 at Sim Lim Square (and of course I bought myself a copy - I’ll let you know what I think of it once I’ve got to read it, but the table of contents looks really interesting).
The interesting thing is that magazine retailers are starting to carry more and more of these magazines, which is a change considering the country which I speak of. When I came here in 1999 with a copy of 2600, which I bought in Sweden before I left, the reaction was quite interesting. Based on the reaction from my then colleges having a copy of 2600 was like having a copy of Playboy or any other contraband. Needless to say, I kept that copy carefully before I read it so much it fall apart and I had to throw it away.
But the story here is that finally there are some hard copy material to read for the security minded person in Singapore, and in my opinion it is a very good thing - we are living in a globalized world and we compete with not only security professionals in the same country, but security professionals all over the world. Providing the same ability to learn as the other countries have increases the skills of our security professionals.
Personally I think Singapore IT security professionals are lacking, both in numbers and in skills. It is hard to find some really hardcore security geek in Singapore, but I have started the Singapore Security Meetup Group to both provide an meeting point for already established security professionals as well as a platform to guide and mentor future security professionals. We meet every 2nd Thursday of the month. Check the website for more details.
