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Gatekeeping:So lastnight I came across an amusing Hackthebox image that had a beartrap with a energy drink, a black hoodie, and a Flipper Zero inside with the caption "Trap a hacker". The first post was something to the effect of "The Flipper Zero is a child's toy no REAL hacker would use that".This reminded me of the elitist, gatekeeping attitudes in the 80's and 90's for the Linux and hacking communities. Asking a simple question often times resulted in "figure it out n00b", "GTFO if you don't know how to run X from terminal", and the like. This didn't do a lot to grow a already small community, it helped alienate people looking to learn, grow, and get started.Things obviously changed over the years with open classes, certifications, events, etc. all over the place (including awesome places like Hackthebox, Kase, THM, etc.). Yet there still are people who have to be elitists....I'm a long time hacker and do OSINT investigations, I also own a Flipper Zero and various Hak5 tools. I find these to be incredibly handy tools (and yes, I have programmed loads of Aurduino nano's to run like a Hak5 USB Rubber Ducky). I don't think convenience should be mistaken for a lack of skill. Nor a way to help onboard people learning penetration testing and hacking as a worthless childish endeavor.People start from different places, have access to different resources, and don't always learn the same as you do. For people that have been in this space for a while, we need to remember this. For people new or trying to come over it's important to know that no one knew everything going in, we all had to learn just like everyone else. If you learn a little slower, need a little extra help, that's ok. Stick with it, ask questions and keep learning and growing.Oh, almost forgot. For the people out there who call certain tools children's toy's and how l33t hax0rs don't use "toys", I guess the OG's forgot about this ACTUAL toy that was used for hacking for a bit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_DraperAnd those of you who are either too young or never had a chance to get one: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2630646

Gatekeeping

Sometimes you don't want to be right about things. Searching for a good friend that dropped off for example. Of course you get that bad feeling in the back of your mind, in the pit of your stomach, but you try to remain optimistic. Looking into a job offer that comes along. Maybe it's an amazing offer, maybe it's the right offer at the right time.The pessimistic side of our brain of course will always tell us the worst has happened, that job offer is bogus, that employee is stealing from the company, that dating profile is fake, etc.&nbsp;Neither side of our brain is wrong, it's our job to find out which is true to the best of our abilities. We may not like the answer that we find, however we owe it to ourselves (and if you are working for someone, others) to uncover the truth.

Sometimes...

Time to make some changes.Things have been busy (in a good way). OSINT For beginners (non regional version) is up, a Level 2 course for the Windows OSINT course is on the way, new website and our Discord channel is up &nbsp;<a href="https://discord.gg/ucNPFQUQCv">https://discord.gg/ucNPFQUQCv</a>There's more on the way so keep an eye out.

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Gatekeeping

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