Hiring a Hacker A hacker, as related to security consulting, is “someone who accesses a computer system by circumventing its security system”. (Wikipedia) This report will take a look at both the pro’s and con’s of hiring such a person as a security consultant for a business. Over the years there have been countless heated debates as to whether or not doing such would be considered ethical. One of the pro’s of hiring a former hacker to work as a security consultant is that they know all of the tricks of the trade. They have studied and paid great attention to many different techniques and how to apply them to reach the goals set forth to get the job done. Because they were at one time in that mindset, they know what other hackers would be doing and thinking in order to try to breech the companies’ security. (Posey, Brien) Another plus of hiring a hacker is that many of them will work for a substantially less salary than will someone who went to college and paid a pretty penny for their education. Hackers seem to truly love what they do; it can sometimes be considered an addiction. Usually money is not the key motivating factor for hardcore hackers. (Shinder, Deb) There are a couple of negatives when hiring a former hacker as a security consultant. The most obvious negative factor of course is the issue of trust. Of course this may be considered an opinion, but it is a major decision to make when owning a successful business. Many things could potentially be breeched by the hacker therefore leading to bankruptcy of the company, and identity theft of the companies customers, just to name a few. (Posey, Brien) The possibility of outside sources finding out that a company has hired a former hacker to run their security system could also have dire consequences. Very quickly a company can lose customers and accounts that disagree with their choice of