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NSA Chief To Address Hackers At DEF CON
wiredmikey writes "Later this week, the NSA's organizational leader and head of the U.S. Cyber Command – General Keith Alexander — will address an audience of hackers at DEF CON. News of General Alexander's talk at Def Con broke on Friday. Up until that point, the 12:00 Track 1 slot was kept secret, leaving attendees to the world's largest hacker conference to speculate. The buzz was that it would be something interesting – if only because this year is Def Con's 20th anniversary. General Alexander will be giving a talk titled 'Shared Values, Shared Responsibility,' which is outlined as a presentation that will focus on the shared core values between the hacker community and the government's cyber community. Namely, the vision of the Internet as a positive force, the fact that information increases value by sharing, the respect and protection of privacy and civil liberties, and the opposition to malicious and criminal behavior."
I presume that this guy won't count, or will this have the audience racing to be the first person to claim spotting him?
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
This conference should have been titled FED CON a long time ago
n/t.
"malicious and criminal behavior" = "malicious and criminal behavior of the unapproved kind"
How about simply not showing up? Let that guy talk in front the plants he brought :P
Surely you could use that time for something better, like chatting, or bringing down the government.
This guy is going to get trolled so hard... Serious butt-hurt awaits him. Someone better get a video of this train wreak.
I mean really, show me a hacker that doesn't want to listen to every phone call on the planet... it's like meeting your Bizarro self...
how long it will take someone in the audience to get into his cell phone.
Stasis is death. Embrace change.
Ah yes, the US government has a stellar track record in recent years as it relates to civil liberties and basic privacies online...
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
What type of "value" they really think they truly share with us?
Spying on your own neighbors?
Frame innocent people up with trumped up charges?
Keep track of every-single-thing on every-single-person on earth?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
that's really pretty cool...
We live, as we dream -- alone....
while Alexander is preaching this stuff, his crew and/or the contractors who are being payed billions of taxpayer dollars are hard at work building the next version of Stuxnet.
its pure marketing.
but there is absolutely almost zero common ground between the fundamental ethos of the 2600 types - namely, the search for truth, knowledge, and wisdom, and the fundamental ethos of the military - destroy the enemy. sure, the military needs some smart folks to help it do its work, and sometimes its necessary. but to confuse the two, is to risk hubris, and to flaunt the fact that you apparently don't read enough Aeschylus.
"We need your services in the War on Terror, why don't you come work for us?" :P
Despite the fact that he represents the organization that most hackers fear the attentions of the most
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
He better go device naked, just imagine a NSA phone lost at DEF CON ... :)
Get my e-mail after a captcha test in: http://tinymailt
The 'Top Boss' of General Alexander is the President of the United States of America Barak Hussein Obama II who has committed acts breaking the Constitution of the USA, and in general all ethics and morals of civilized human beings, i.e. Homo Sapiens.
And this General says, "We as a global society are extremely vulnerable and at risk for a catastrophic cyber event. Global society needs the best and brightest to help secure our most valued resources in cyberspace: our intellectual property, our critical infrastructure and our privacy. DEF CON has an important place in computer security. It taps into a broad range of talent and provides an unprecedented diversity of experiences and expertise to solve tough problems. The hacker community and USG cyber community share some core values: we both see the Internet as an immensely positive force; we both believe information increases in value by sharing; we both respect protection of privacy and civil liberties; we both believe in the need for oversight that fosters innovation, doesn’t pick winners and losers, and retains freedom and flexibility; we both oppose malicious and criminal behavior. We should build on this common ground because we have a shared responsibility to secure cyberspace."
What the 'Good' General wants us to admire is his largess and not the FACTS of the USA TERROR CAMPAIGN against the citizen of the United States of America, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and 'Unfortunates' [targets of opportunity] of the European Union.
In this commendation of the 'Good General'. The hacker community nor the citizens of the United States of America share the 'core values' so eloquently [forgiving the bad english, snicker snicker] written of by the 'Good General'.
Allow me the kindness of plain writing, Good General = Good Nazi!
LoL :D
The hacker community and USG cyber community share some core values: we both see the Internet as an immensely positive force; we both believe information increases in value by sharing; we both respect protection of privacy and civil liberties; we both believe in the need for oversight that fosters innovation, doesnâ(TM)t pick winners and losers, and retains freedom and flexibility; we both oppose malicious and criminal behavior. We should build on this common ground because we have a shared responsibility to secure cyberspace.
Since when does the NSA respect privacy?
From MINARET and SHAMROCK to ECHELON, Stellar Wind, and warrantless wiretapping, they've done nothing but disrespect privacy.
Shit. FISA was passed into law specifically because the NSA was spying on Americans.
And then Bush came along and did his best to piss all over the minimal protections provided by FISA
And Congress helped by giving retroactive immunity to the Telecoms for illegally enabling the NSA's surveillance.
The Director of the NSA is in for a tough time if he's really going to claim that the NSA respects privacy.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
In US officials' language "civil liberties" means "something that we claim, our enemies disrespect when we want to attack them".
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
A General eh? Pretty cool. Kudos to Dark Tangent.
the respect and protection of privacy and civil liberties, and the opposition to malicious and criminal behavior
I guess, in a sense, those are shared values. Both sides share the view that half of the above pair is a "nice to have" that can be infringed when it conflicts with the other half.
But I don't think the two sides agree on which half can be justly infringed.
If you look at it that way, it is such an elegant turn of phrase -- and in a context where riddles and half truths are held in such esteem -- that I almost think it must be intentional. Except what kind of scumbag would ever admit to being on the wrong side?
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
Gov't agents speak at conferences often enough.
http://safecomputing.umich.edu/events/sumit10/#Snow - Gordon Snow, Assistant Director FBI spoke at a umich security conference a few years back.
Often times they will speak candidly about certain things they have leeway with.
It can and should be a learning experience.
What, like violating the fourth amendment?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
No, fuck you.
You do not share my values. Neither politicial party shares my values.
I may not be able to do jack shit about you morons being in charge of the world and fucking it up.
But i damm well don't have to HELP YOU.
No matter where in the hierarchy, the top of that decision tree is the Commander in Chief.
That's what they want you to believe
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
I'm packing as I type this... Defcon XX here I come.
Min
On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
it goes both ways: Because of this, a lot of military (rank and file) will hear about DEFCON, and learn more of the various hacker perspectives (for good and for ill). That means more potential conscientious objectors, more potential whistleblowers, more multifaceted human beings.
yes, all of the other comments above and below (well, some). He's doing PR, and he wants the impossible dream of universal safety, and his organisation's methods towards that impossible goal are often complicated (with many aspects being harmful in many ways).
But sharing their vocabulary maps, is a good thing for Any community to do with its neighbours.
Plus, the military/government wants to hire the smart and rational and practical and experienced hackers. A LOT of them, over the coming years. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/06/08/nsa-built-stuxnet-but-real-trick-is-building-crew-of-hackers
If you can't talk to your neighbours, and at least try to understand their worldviews, then when you DO need to communicate it's as if you're just shouting in an unintelligible language, and progress can't happen.
Go learn about the man, and what his private perspectives are (or might be), and hence what personal bias' he brings to the speech, along with his career-based bias'. Obligations/intents/implicit and explicit messages/etc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_B._Alexander which eventually leads to http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2009-attendee-list/ See, we're learning already!
If you don't feel patriotic or disagree with your current government, consider using your leet skills for the benefit of all mankind by taking on people like Assad. He is killing his own people. Think about forming a temporary partnership/truce for the good of all people. Get him where it hurts by taking out his bank accounts, taking out his internal networks. Help out the people of Syria and the world at large by helping the NSA/CIA find and seize his offshore accounts.
Assad obviously does not give a crap about his own people but he does care about his money. Steal it from him in a concerted effort with your temporary allies in the western nation governments.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
I can't help but think this is abit like Darth Vader addressing the Rebel forces... just saying
_______________________________
"it's like, whatever..."
So does this guy get secret service protection? What about the new protest-free zone law that Obama put through that pretty much allows them to selectively charge people with felony trespassing with no notice?
about the government "reaching out" to hackers to bring them into intelligence jobs. The way I see it is, the government is too cheap to train their own staff so they're going for self trained talent which they don't have to pay to train. Who said that government is inefficient?
General Alexander is actually a funny guy. I was doing an installation run at Fort Meade a few years back. Turns out the General didn't leave his house early enough and he got stuck in his driveway while the entire base ran by. Since he had to wait for a few thousand people to run by, he made the best of it and did some road-side stand-up comedy for us. Mostly the General was satirizing himself and the rest of the Generals out there, by sarcastically complaining about us doing this run and not slaving away inside our cubicles.
sudo make me a sandwich
Every hacker should wear a "V" mask....
Apparently, a shortened version of the speech has been leaked. Here is it:
Uhm. Hello guys! We do some really cool stuff at the NSA and have some really big machines. Unfortunately, I cannot go into the details here, so just trust in blind faith when I say that work at NSA is pretty cool and some of you might be interested in joining us -- provided you are "flexible", patriots up to a pathological level and willing to totally submit to superiors, of course. Because we're the good guys (again, I cannot really justify why we are the good guys, as this is all top secret, etc.). Thanks a lot and hope to see you soon at NSA!
That's a tough one, but I'll take a shot. Say I'm working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I'm real happy with myself, 'cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never met, never had no problem with, get killed. Now the politicians are sayin', "Oh, send in the Marines to secure the area" 'cause they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there, gettin' shot. Just like it wasn't them when their number got called, 'cause they were pullin' a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some kid from Southie takin' shrapnel in the ass. And he comes back to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, 'cause he'll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile, he realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And, of course, the oil companies used the skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices. A cute little ancillary benefit for them, but it ain't helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. And they're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil back, of course, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and fuckin' play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain't too long 'til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So now my buddy's out of work and he can't afford to drive, so he's got to walk to the fuckin' job interviews, which sucks 'cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starvin', 'cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat, the only blue plate special they're servin' is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what did I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. I figure fuck it, while I'm at it why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president.
Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.-rms
Maybe they should let the whistleblowers talk instead:
http://current.com/shows/viewpoint/videos/nsa-whistleblowers-warn-of-secret-spying-programs-that-can-target-anyone/
You Country Needs You. Sign Up Now. We Cant Afford A Hacker Gap.