S0ft Project Speaks
reported by: sil @ AntiOffline.com
If possible can you guys shed some light on us?....

Sure it is, as long as you can define that foggy mud that hardens our brains as light ;P

How did s0ft project as a group come to light and how many members of the group are there total?

spj simply grew up as a friendly inner-circle of people from the italian underground scene, which, to many peoples' surprise, seems to really exist, now and then. and thanks to the iron will of some of its members it stayed together under everyday fire and is now WYS&WYG ;)

after some years the group eventually reached a number between 15 and 20, comprising both cooperators and active members, to super-active coders like pigpen.

Whats the groups main take on the security scene. Meaning how do you guys view the "Hacker" scene. Do you view the media's stance on security issues as overhype?

the main take probably should sound something like "leave security to those really interested in it, or those who can disassemble it", so to bypass the usual 'cracker' stance while not leaving the pros'n'cons to commercial units. Obviously you can crack and go on destroying the world: just check your inner ethic'n'beliefs and don't bother us.

Obviously the fun is right after the official-lame-executive main-stand-for-interviews =;)

The hacker scene seems to be today some sort of Broadway screenplay. You can't just identify it with a simple review, nor you can really hope to depict it with just a shot. Let's Live and Prosper be our mantra. Of course, live and let die is up to you, if you prefer.

About the media, we in Europe don't really see it as simple overhype. Yelling about I_Love_You metashits really offers you new fields of bargain as you deeply look at antivirus companies, doesn't it ?!

Moreover, governments' point of view seems to aim at a structured and deeply planned program to enweb the web, if you let us this sort of neoangloesperanto.

Seems not just hype to sell papers. Smells a bit rotten, uh ?

If you are in the world of underground security you prolly blame the medias, but if you are in the commercial security biz, what the medias do is just a positive thing: they make a sort of subliminal advertising in which, underlining the weaknesses of some systems, de facto, they contribute to sponsorize the security companies and researchers and therefore to create a business.

Let's just say it's both interesting and fun to walk on the bleeding edge between the underground and the sec-ops. But please, don't call us white-hats ;P

Just how much do you think security differs in Europe as opposed to the U.S.? Do you think the United States can be dominant as a security leader or do you view European businesses as handling security related matters more intense?

whoa, this is nice. please enter our commercial guys =) Europe is ONE reality only on financial and political tv spots and newspapers. it's hard to tell ya how it differs from USA. There are too many differences between Northern Europe, Netherlands, Germany and, just to say, France, Spain and Italy to point them out.

So we'll speak about Italy :) Security ? What security ? despite the long-standing italian presence in G7, it usually seems to dwell in Africa, concerning technologies. Sure, we got the most influential mobile-phone market in EU, and concerning single standards, perhaps in the world, but security is not the main concern. Sure, times are changing. We'll see ....

About being leader in the security market, well, that could be a problem, being european or american, wouldn't you say ? so that's a big naaaa from us. Political aspects of open source and info-diffusion are too much for these lame words :) but we really wouldn't like a single country to become leader in anything, imagine security. No thanks.

You guys have written many programs for the security community, where do your ideas come from? Do some sit around and share thoughts or do ideas just pop up in members heads, maybe you guys audit tons of coding. Whats the main basis of team s0ftpj releasing some of its work?

well, most of the active members simply have wonderful lives spent doing most NULL. Well, sure, we just undercover it, but that's the truth ;P . hmmm, looking at some other members faces we feel obliged to say that:

's0ftpj's guys are young and good looking' so they have to get away with mad professors, big-whooper-breasts girls and screaming mammas, but despite this they are always brain-connected with the net and always active to get ahead with their big passion seated in front of a monitor with a keyboard on the legs.

Well, sort of .... :)

ideas pop up sometimes, sometimes instead come from discussions, more over from alcohol or shitting sessions (yeah, in the bathroom) so just don't consider us politically correct. We just don't fit.

auditing is usually for fun or just as a keep-in-touch exercise, as this activity is not 24h/die as many of us must confront with jobs, academic accidents or just girls-trapping actions.

the kind of works we release is usually proof-of-concept as for DNS DoSsing, or alpha-beta codes for kernel and networking fields. we just release what we found interesting of our code, or what can be relevant for other people work.

Who thought of the name s0ft project and why was it incepted as opposed to something in a more security based fashion like Netcom Security or so?

hmmm this is nice'n'tricky, cause no-one seems to remember whom it may be traced to, nor how it came out =) Perhaps the original creators were too drunk at the time. Now, after three years, the memory is lost, and just the feeling is still with us.

Sure we didn't want to look as a nice company with gorgeous hostesses [though we could just use some hostess], and the choice was limited between dark-olistic names and techno ones.

anyhow ... who cares ?! :)

We definitely hate to have groups and people admit it in public but would you guys publicly acknowledge that it is true indeed there is a 99.99999% fear factor regarding team antioffline?

well, sure it is. we got some people here in Italy that did NOT like us, and has been going on for months blaming us and just annoying us. At public meetings, having visited antioffline mainHQ, they simply offered as do-all-slaves. too bad there are few scene-whores being inspired by fear here in Italy. we're just working on it.

Out of the members of the group, is anyone into the computer security field as a professional? Do you guys work in the industry or simply enthusiasts who code/work for fun and recognition?

well, some have a job. some study in academic centers. some have a job in academic units. other work in the professional security field. but the most of us, simply enjoy it. was it route who said we all are in the biz just for fame, dollars and top-models ? oh sure, and for letting Cavallo answer e-mails in the relevant section of BFi =)

Cavallo PostNote:
"well, prolly we got fame, maybe we have some f**kin EURO, but where the hell are the top-models ?!? WE WANT THEM !!"


---

tnx for your patience :) and, BTW, great site: keep up the good work !

On behalf of s0ftpj =)

Welp there you have it. Massive greets to the crew over at S0ftpj.org. Maybe some day soon we'll pick up the latest issue of GQ magazine and see them pimping those bambinas in their Ferrari's ;)