Twitter - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Infosec twitter is a fantastic platform for sharing your projects and research, interacting with other various researchers, asking for help, reading the latest news and discovering anything security-related would be shared around. But infosec twitter is plagued with dramas and for some reason we seem hypnotized by them.

Recently on Twitter, there have been various dramas in the infosec community where female members of the community have been harassed by the male members and upon reading stories of how women are treated by men, it’s opened up many eyes to the unacceptable behaviour of men towards women in the modern-day. I'm sure if you ask any women on twitter there will be a story about harassment or unacceptable behaviour. I am all for women in communities and equal rights and to be treated like a fellow colleague, not just some meat left out for the lions to fight upon, there are plenty of women whom I am good friends with doing some excellent research and I support numerous women who need help and guidance on their journey into tech.

We need to help out our fellow women and not make sexual advances on them, there has to be a line to draw and not to be crossed , we need to have a professional approach towards women and other fellow members in our community.

On that note this is not just a women-only blog, I have seen various men being bullied, abused and trolled due to fallouts and arguments and again it's just unacceptable behaviour. Putting down people if they ask for help or laughing at them because they got the wrong answer when there is no right or wrong answer is wrong. At times there will be disagreements amongst our community and it's completely healthy to have a debate, but when it gets out of hand and abuse begins its a problem.

If you notice this behaviour try to educate participants and advise them what they are doing is wrong, its possible that they do not know what they are doing, this is a community and we should help out instead of attacking them or calling them out.

Right now twitter is a minefield and you have to tread carefully about who you can talk to and comment on, which shouldn’t be the case. There is so much great content out there and great people to follow don't be discouraged by the bad apples, and remember that everyone is in need of a conversation sometimes, so don’t freak out if someone wants to chat to you about your research and findings.

There are some good hackers/researchers out there who don't publicly post their findings due to NDAs or not being into the fame game, who do not care how many likes they can get on a tweet. Just because some people have a limited amount of followers or tweets doesn’t mean they aren't better than you, I have met some really highly skilled hackers but their social game is low, and on the other hand, I have met some really sociable hackers but their hacking skills are low.

Sharing with the community is important and can understand at times its impossible to share due to NDAs, but there are so many active researchers constantly working away and publicly disclosing there work, sharing with the community and making it great for others. Many of them have had enough with all the dramas and end up leaving twitter, if you really like a researcher find their blog posts, get their email and contact them through email. Many hackers talk about IRC, but if you don’t know what you are doing, it will cause more harm then good as I have found hackers not wanting to help newbies and you won’t find experienced hackers on IRC as now its heavily monitored, which discourages there privacy.

There any many discord communities out there I myself is apart of TMHC (The Many Hats Club) community and some really great bunch of guys and women who are always willing to help out where needed and any advice wanted, don't be discouraged to join any community as most of us are friendly and will go out our way to help.

If you're new to twitter don’t be discouraged by the dramas, there are a block and mute buttons but if you into your dramas then grab some popcorn as sooner or later there will be. If you are on twitter I can recommend some great researchers to follow in the field you are interested in, my twitter handle is @DecyphaC. Stay safe