Full Disclosure mailing list returns
The Full Disclosure mailing list has returned under new management, with the old subscriber list cast aside when the list was resurrected.
"While this is a successor list in spirit, it is also a fresh start in that the old userbase won't carry over," wrote new administrator Gordon "Fyodor" Lyon, who also looks after a number of Nmap lists, in a post announcing the list's return.
Last week, John Cartwright, long-time administrator of the list, announced that he was closing down the list, saying that he could not longer "fight this fight", and it was getting increasingly harder to run an open forum in the current legal environment.
"There is no honour amongst hackers any more. There is no real community. There is precious little skill," wrote Cartwright.
"This is all a sign of things to come, and a reflection on the sad state of an industry that should never have become an industry.
"I'm suspending service indefinitely. Thanks for playing."
Subsequent to this post, Lyon emailed Cartwright asking how he could help, with Cartwright confirmed that his days with the list were done, but if Lyon wanted to create a replacement that he could "go for it".
"If I can do this for as long as John did, and with anywhere near his skill, I will consider it a success," wrote Lyon.
"I'll recruit a team of volunteer moderators from the active list members because this needs to be run by and for the community!"
Lyon said that the new Full Disclosure will continue to be lightly moderated, and mailing lists were a much better medium for disclosing security issues than alternatives, such as social media, could offer.
"Some have argued that we no longer need a Full Disclosure list, or even that mailing lists as a concept are obsolete. They say researchers should just Tweet out links to advisories that can be hosted on Pastebin or company sites. I disagree.
"Mailing lists create a much more permanent record and their decentralized nature makes them harder to censor or quietly alter in the future."
Former readers of the list looking to resubscribe can do so from Full Disclosure's announcement page.