One Article Review
| Source |  AlienVault Blog |
|---|---|
| Identifiant | 594423 |
| Date de publication | 2018-04-18 13:00:00 (vue: 2018-04-18 15:01:15) |
| Titre | Passive Voice and Hacker Zombies |
| Texte |
Passive voice in written communication is a huge part of the InfoSec world’s perception problem.
I get it, I mean, it’s not really your fault, right? Your 8th grade English teacher probably made you write that way, because it’s formal. Or because it’s proper. Or because you’d flunk the class if you didn’t (forgetting for the moment that hacking the grading system was trivial. Whatever.) And even though you’ve forgotten, ignored, or learned better about 99% of everything you learned in school, for some weird reason no one’s ever been able to explain to me, the majority of people writing technical content (not trained technical writers; those guys know better) cleave to passive voice like they cleave to no other rule ever in any other aspect of their lives.
Not entirely sure what passive voice is? Merriam-Webster comes to the rescue:
Definition of passive
1 a (1) : acted upon by an external agency
(2) : receptive to outside impressions or influences
b (1) : asserting that the grammatical subject of a verb is subjected to or affected by the action represented by that verb
the passive voice
(2) : containing or yielding a passive verb form
c (1) : lacking in energy or will : lethargic
(2) : tending not to take an active or dominant part
Passive voice has a long and glorious history of being the language of plausible deniability, and of abdication of responsibility. It’s the language you used when you were four and got busted for eating the cookies. “Cookies were eaten.” It’s the same language that’s used when a politician gets caught doing practically anything. “Mistakes were made.” It’s a way of acknowledging that activity happened, without actually taking the blame for it, or ownership for the fixing of it. It’s the language of the shifty and has been for millennia.
“No one exists for even an instant without performing action. However unwilling, every being is forced to act by the qualities of nature” (Bhagavad Gita 3:5).
It is entirely fitting then, that this language is most easily identified by the following trick:
Ms. Johnson, Dean of Academics and Deputy Director of the MC War College, came up with this outstanding test back in 2012, as a way to teach Marines how to write more actively. Because who wants zombies in their writing? No one does. “Mistakes were made by zombies.”
But… hang on… why does the Marine Corps War College care about passive voice so much? Because passive voice introduces ambiguity into our writing. It makes it unclear to the reader who exactly did what and when. It confuses us about the differences between the actor, and the acted-upon. And in a situation where there’s an attacker and a target, ambiguity is the ultimate enemy, because people have to delay their response while they attempt |
| Envoyé | Oui |
| Condensat | “control “cookies “in “mistakes “no “the 2012 3:5 8th abdication able about academics accurate acknowledging act acted action active actively activity actor actually affected afford agency aliases all ambiguity amirite any anything are aspect asserting astute attacker attackers attempt attempted attention authorized back bad because been being better between bhagavad big blame breached busted but but… came can care caught causality chain ciso class clearly cleave college comes communication confuses construction containing content contractor conveying cookies corps creating critical dean decipher defenses definition delay deniability deputy despair determined… did didn’t differences director discovered does doing dominant easily eaten eating eight email emails enemy energy english entirely eradicating even ever every everything exactly except exists explain external fatal fault feel fight figure fitting five fixing flunk follow following forced forgetting forgotten form formal found four friends get gets gita glorious good got grade grading grammatical guys hacker hackers hacking half hang happen happened has have hesitating history hope how however huge identified ignored immediately impressions in; infected influences information infosec initiated installed instant internal introduces it’s johnson just know knowledge knows lacking language learned let lethargic like lives long lost machines made majority makes marine marines mean members merriam messaging millennia moment more most much mystery nature” not on… one one’s other out outside outstanding ownership part passive patches paying pentests people perception performing phishing piece plausible politician practically precisely probably problem procedures professional proper qualities quarantine quarterly reader really reason receptive relevant represented rescue: response responsibility rest right rule same school secure security see send servers sets shifty situation soc some sound sounds spear subject subjected sudden sure survival system systems take taking target teach teacher team technical tell tending test testing that’s then there’s these things those though time timely to… trained trick: trivial truly trying ultimate unclear unpatched unwilling upon used verb virus voice vulnerabilities wants war wasted way we’re webster weird what whatever when where who whom why will without wonder world’s write writers; writing written yielding you’d you’re you’ve your zombies |
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