If you read yesterday's IT section in the Sydney Morning Herald or The Age newspapers, you would have seen the following two yarns.

This one:

Cybercrime leads to a sense of security
Patrick Gray
February 6, 2007

Now the Government has cut off his electronic ankle bracelet, convicted hacker Adrian Lamo will offer his services as a security consultant.

US Government supervision and monitoring of the so-called "homeless hacker" expired last week. In February 2004, Lamo was convicted of hacking into the New York Times' computer network two years before.

And this one:

Hacker to write autobiography
Patrick Gray
February 6, 2007

AFTER a seven-year wait, reformed hacker Kevin Mitnick will finally begin work on his autobiography following the expiration of a court order that prevented him from profiting from his crimes.

Mitnick spent more than five years in jail for his exploits, which included hacking into Motorola, Novell, Fujitsu, Sun Microsystems and Nokia to steal software code. He was arrested in 1995 after spending two years on the run from the FBI living under assumed names.

Ok -- question time. In what other business does getting convicted as a felon and sent to prison actually boost your status in the square community? No offence to Kevin or Adrian, but let's see how things would shape up if the rules of employment for hackers applied to other criminals.

Let's look at some examples:

Scenario 1:

Crime: A bank employee busted for pocketing coin to fund his gambling addiction.

Likely employment after release from prison: Most likely a toilet cleaner somewhere.

Employment post release if "hackers rules" applied: Bank hires him back on seven figure contract to develop policy preventing other employees from stealing money.

Scenario 2:

Crime: Driving at 200km/h over the speed limit.

Likely employment after release from prison: Sydney taxi driver.

Employment post release if "hackers rules" applied: Advanced driving trainer.

Scenario 3:

Crime: Pimp.

Likely employment after release from prison: Dish pig in a busy restaurant.

Employment post release if "hackers rules" applied: Counsellor to confused, vulnerable young women.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not comparing Kevin Mitnick or Adrian Lamo to pimps. In my dealings with them over the last few years they've been nothing but ethical gentleman. But if the success of Kevin Mitnick and Adrian Lamo proves anything, it's that scarcity is a valued commodity in today's world. If you have a rare skill, the proving ground could be the mail room or the underground -- it simply doesn't matter.

Still, I'll look forward to reading Kevin's book, and I'll be keeping an eye on Lamo -- he's freakily good at owning corporate networks using nothing more than a browser