Help a Hacker

A year or so ago I became a fan of the work that Johnny Long was doing. Not only his Google Hacking, No Tech Hacking, and other cool things, but also his Hackers for Charity work. Back in April I had the pleasure of seeing Johnny give his No Tech Hacking talk and I meet him after the talk. We spend a few minutes talking about hackers for charity. At that time I encouraged all of you to check out the hackersforcharity.org site and do what you could to help with this endeavor. Today I'm renewing that call to action. There are a several things that you can do that are very easy, enjoyable and even free (not all are free). You can buy the book No Tech Hacking by clicking to the Amazon site directly from Johnny's site. When you do this all the proceeds go directly to Hackers for Charity. You can buy a "I Hack Charities" vinyl label for you laptop from here. Again all the proceeds go to hackers for charity. You can donate time, money or equipment to the cause. If you blog or podcast tell your readers and/or listeners about the work that is going on at Hackers for Charity.

Now there is something new that you can do. Peter Giannoulis, founder of The Academy web site, is offering to donate $1 for every new member that joins www.theacademy.ca during the month of November. So not only do you get to make a charitable donation that costs you nothing but you also become a member of a very cool site that is aimed at making your job as a information security practitioner easier.

So I encourage all of you to take a look at the work that hackers for charity is doing and think about how you can help out and then do what you can.