DefCon to Feds: We need space in our relationship

[thewayne]

There's an annual security conference in Las Vegas called DefCon. They talk about all sorts of security vulnerabilities, many of which were pretty much unknown to the general public until they were disclosed at this event. For example, last year someone built a radio-controlled airplane that was a cellular repeater, except it intercepted all cell calls in its area and logged the information. Now after we've learned about PRISM, it seems kind of quaint.

They also played a game called Spot The Fed. If you saw someone whom you thought were FBI or some other TLA, you could accuse them and put them up on the stage for group interrogation. It was all good fun.

Until this year.

The organizer of DefCon, Jeff Moss, posted the following on the DefCon web site:

“For over two decades DEF CON has been an open nexus of hacker culture, a place where seasoned pros, hackers, academics, and feds can meet, share ideas and party on neutral territory. Our community operates in the spirit of openness, verified trust, and mutual respect.

When it comes to sharing and socializing with feds, recent revelations have made many in the community uncomfortable about this relationship. Therefore, I think it would be best for everyone involved if the feds call a ‘time-out’ and not attend DEF CON this year.

This will give everybody time to think about how we got here, and what comes next.”

I'm sure there will be some Feds there, but they'll be a lot more careful about how they interact with the attendees.

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/07/def-con-to-feds-stay-home-this-year/

Comments

[silveradept]

Considering how well and thoroughly the federal government has burned any credibility it had about surveillance and ordinary citizens, it makes sense for the people who want to talk abbot being secure and defeating someone else's security to ask them to politely go away, so that they can talk more openly.