I stumbled across the LSO or "Learn Security Online site the other day. I happened to be reading the security newswire (sometimes I do this if I feel like I'm too alert early in the day,) and their press release just leapt out at me because it was so different from the other cruft that you see on the wire. Granted, I did think that LSO CEO arguing with Gene Spafford in his own press release was a bit strange, but I just thought "huh" and plowed through:
When asked what he thought of the comment made by Gene Spafford, professor of computer sciences at Purdue University. "Criminal justice programs don't have students steal cars or commit rape to understand what motivates criminals or how to stop them." Joe replied, “Yup, he’s right. But those criminal justice majors eventually leave college and go to the real world. Then it’s just experience, and help from other professionals in the field that teach them the ropes of investigating and prosecuting those types of crimes. Nearly 1/3rd of LSO customers are college students, and I take a lot of pride in knowing that they’ll be better prepared to work in the field because of LSO.”
Anyway, the upshot is that I read through the material for LSO. I've been trying to figure out who the audience is for this - if the audience is security professionals, I'm wondering how many people are going to pay to enter a track called "3l337" (Track 5) or "Ub3r h4x0r" (Track 4). If the audience is wanna-be hackers, I'm wondering who's going to pay 39.95 a month for membership. I'm wondering how much of a market there is here - LSO obviously has funding: professional graphics, PR, web design, software development, colocation, etc. I'm wondering what VC signed on the dotted line for a marketing plan that says "Course Offerings: 3l337 Track, Script Kiddie Track, Ne0phy7e Track, etc."...