DEF CON Advises Feds Not To Attend Conference 250
tsu doh nimh writes "One of the more time-honored traditions at DEF CON — the massive hacker convention held each year in Las Vegas — is 'Spot-the-Fed,' a playful and mostly harmless contest to out undercover government agents that attend the show each year. But that game might be a bit tougher when the conference rolls around again next month: In an apparent reaction to recent revelations about far-reaching U.S. government surveillance programs, DEF CON organizers are asking feds to just stay away: 'I think it would be best for everyone involved if the feds call a "time-out" and not attend DEF CON this year,' conference organizer Jeff Moss wrote in a short post at Defcon.org. Krebsonsecurity writes that after many years of mutual distrust, the hacker community and the feds buried a lot of their differences in the wake of 911, with the director of NSA even delivering the keynote at last year's conference. But this year? Spot the fed may just turn into hack-the-fed."
Re:Wrong way to go about it? (Score:5, Interesting)
Defcon is a freakshow (Score:3, Interesting)
Defcon hasn't been about Defcon for a long time now. Since, what, Defcon 5 or 6? Ever since they moved out to that dumb Alexis hotel.
The REAL conference is Blackhat Briefings, which goes on during the week and is attended by serious people. Then, on the weekend, we bring the freaks out for your amusement and cap off Blackhat with Defcon. It's all about $$$$$ for Darktangent.
When you dance with the Devil, (Score:4, Interesting)
When you dance with the Devil, the Devil doesn't change - you do.
Look up Smedley Butler. He joined for patriotism, he was decorated for bravery and then he was used to murder civilians for agribusiness. Here we are a century later and the game is the same. Young men join for patriotism and end up murdering civilians for the profits of the 1%
Pot calling kettle black. Moss works for DHS (Score:5, Interesting)
Does it seem strange that someone working for the Federal Government (DHS) is asking other Federal Employees to stay away?
Re: Uncomfortable Relationship (Score:5, Interesting)
"You can, of course, be arrested for anything at any time. However, you will not be convicted of"
Thats why being arrested in and of itself is being used as a form of punishment these days. If arrested you're held for the full period allowed by law (72 hours I believe in most areas, there are of course always attempts to extend this limit) and in most cases never charged. You have your fingerprints, image and now even your DNA taken as evidence to be used against you in the future. If you want proof you don't have to look far, during the OWS protests thousands were arrested, I doubt 15% of them were charged. In NYC even those cases where they did try to charge the protestors the cases were thrown out left and right, due to lack of any evidence, evidence (video) proving the charges were bogus, case after case where the arresting officer "couldn't"/wouldn't come to court and even a case where the police write up of the "criminal activity" wasn't a crime(the officer claimed that by dressing up like a pixie she was "impeding traffic").