An Origin Story: vsociety

The Power of the Collective

Welcome to vsociety – the open, independent, and user-centered community with features built specifically to make vulnerability research shareable and actionable at scale. If you’re reading this, it means you’ve discovered the community and we’re pumped to have you here. Whether you’re looking to share original research, participate in security-centric discussion, or watch from the shadows to sharpen your toolkit, a community can’t thrive without its people. 

You are our people. And we want you to thrive.

vsociety was born from countless conversations with security researchers who expressed a need for a vendor-agnostic community space where they could work together to solve problems. vsociety is vendor-created, but community-led. It’s for you that we built this community and we now humbly turn it over to you, the community, to help grow, nurture, and protect the open and independent nature of vsociety. 

We aim to harness the power of the collective for the greater good, starting with the three pillars close to the heart of vsociety:

• Education. Share original research, learn new techniques, ask questions, or read about newly discovered exploits. vsociety aims to provide knowledge at your fingertips, in a consumable fashion that makes sense for industry veterans and newbies looking to break in, alike.

• Collaboration. Research is only valuable when it’s shared, vetted, and utilized. Post original research or share your thoughts on what others have contributed. Solve problems with other security pros in the community or solicit their feedback on your projects. We’re all better when we work together.

• Democratization. Security should not belong exclusively to the large and the elite. Enterprises big and small deserve access to the most accurate and timely information for securing their networks. A company’s pocketbook should never dictate how secure they can be, and vsociety aims to enable that.
  

Security Needs a Community

A recent study from the Ponemon Institute cited 60% of breach victims admitting the initial attack could’ve been prevented by patching known vulnerabilities. Likewise, the number of new vulnerabilities published last year was more than double from the same timeframe five years prior. Technology is improving, but progress is stalling. What gives?

Bad actors and the ethically-challenged have long collaborated with one another on various corners of the web, and we think the security community is overdue for a space of their own. A good community – if it does its job well – can connect the like-minded and even reconnect the most ethically disconnected individuals. But it's essential for everyone – from individual practitioners, to companies, to industries, to government agencies – to do their part to improve cybersecurity. Whether it's investing in better security tools, sharing lessons-learned with peers, or being more careful about what information you share – we each have our roles. 

Our role is in building a community that security researchers, and those interested in their research, may turn to for education, collaboration, and timely info-sharing to better protect the digital world and begin turning the tide on those statistics above.

As security professionals, we are constantly striving to stay ahead of the latest threats, needing to quickly identify, respond to, and prevent attacks – while doing our best to understand their origin and etiology. It’s a never-ending race, but one that is essential to the safety of our digital world. And in today’s security landscape, community plays a pivotal role in driving research toward “good faith” info-sharing that enhances vulnerability and threat hunting for all.

You’re no longer alone. Your community is here.

The launch of vsociety continues our commitment to giving back to the security community and opening up critical information for security practitioners around the world.

Welcome to vsociety. We hope you’ll stay a while.

#themakingof #vsociety #community

Have questions? Check out the FAQ or comment here.