1/A lot of questions have flooded in regarding @SakuraSamuraii - some have asked what the end game is, and generally speaking, others have asked about the "exclusiveness"

Here's my answer:

2/Throughout the years, hacking has been regarded as a criminal activity. Obviously, a ton of work has gone into reshaping the idea of hacking into "Security Research" to assist society in understanding hacking -- without scaring them.

3/Nearly every famous hacking group that society thinks of when they think "hacking" are groups like Anonymous, Lizard Squard, LulzSec, etc. People are predominantly scared of these groups, and if they don't know anything about hacking it makes it worse.

4/At the core though, Security Researchers are Hackers. Therefore, the intention of Sakura Samurai is to show society that Hackers operating ethically also have the ability to make waves in the news, and be well known -- but not for doing harm.

5/The reason the group is exclusive is because of the current Hacking landscape. If we open our doors to anyone we either become:

1. A watered down criminal hacking collective
2. Another infosec community with a v/difficult mission to organize.

6/We don't want that. Sakura Samurai wanted to be a hacking group that drops ethical hacks, and does so in a way that it actually shocks people -- in a good way. For example, our United Nations hack brought congratulations in a good light, to the point in which..

7/Non-infosec individuals such as friends and family from back home congratulated the moment and started a dialogue about ethical hacking. This is what we want. A conversation.

8/At the end of the day, it's always going to be difficult to reshape the way that hackers are viewed, and that's fine. However, we need to show society that hackers aren't always this idea of a nefarious group of people that run around trolling all day and starting drama.

9/For my many friends that do this, you do you. However Sakura Samurai will take no part it contributing to a negative and exceedingly confusing dialect. Our two main focuses are:

1. Hacking
2. Giving back to the community

Anything else is a waste of time. Flame wars, etc.

10/To the blackhat groups that are out there: know that we have no intention of stepping up or stepping in your territory. It's not our game, and the day it becomes such is the day Sakura Samurai disbands.

11/As a final thought, people have asked about our decision of allowing @Kirtaner the founder of Anonymous in our group. I believe that people maintain the wrong perception of what the move involves surrounding this decision.

12/ @Kirtaner is talented. He's OG, he knows hacking - and not the hacking that any will ever learn through an OSCP course or through a bug bounty program. Kirt has been a great ally, and his life fighting QAnon isn't Sakura Samurai's fight.

13/Additionally, that's part of the issue surrounding hacking, good or bad. People have the capacity to good by the world and to do bad, it's not always as static as society may claim, occasionally Kirt will assist us with our Ethical efforts.

14/As Kirt said last night during @defcon512 -- We looked beyond some of the decisions he has made in the past. People can change and do good for the world. The hacking landscape is evolving rapidly. There's a vision for the future of hacking.

15/Sakura Samurai's vision is one that's far more ethical, and I know many other groups are focusing more on action and less on malicious trolling. We will reshape the way hackers are viewed.

/end