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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."

22 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Spot the Fed just got too easy. by sethstorm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
  2. Throw eggs or hand in your hacker pass. by Johann+Lau · · Score: 3, Insightful

    n/t.

    1. Re:Throw eggs or hand in your hacker pass. by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2

      If you're against the NSA's widespread illegal domestic wiretapping and surveillance you're a "vandal and social misfit?" And if you applaud it you're a "clever programmer?"

      Hackers should not abandon all idealism for the sake of conforming and being respected by authoritarians and authority cocksuckers. At that point you're not a hacker, you're a stooge who's good at programming.

      Eggs. Booed off stage. Make it happen.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  3. Gotta love newspeak, by the way. by Johann+Lau · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "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.

    1. Re:Gotta love newspeak, by the way. by c0lo · · Score: 2

      "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

      Also:

      the fact that information increases value by sharing

      I'm not quite sure RIAA/MPAA agree... (unless the shared info comes from Faecebook)

      the respect and protection of privacy and civil liberties

      "respect and protection of privacy and civil liberties" - that's indeed the most refined level of newspeak NSA would be capable of delivering for the present time. Expect increased sophistication as the society "evolves".

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    2. Re:Gotta love newspeak, by the way. by Genda · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or everyone could read the following quote from Good Will Hunting.

    3. Re:Gotta love newspeak, by the way. by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2

      I wonder if the information sharing Wikileaks and the recent NSA whistleblowers did was also applauded by the NSA?

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  4. I wonder... by SleepyHappyDoc · · Score: 4, Funny

    how long it will take someone in the audience to get into his cell phone.

    --
    Stasis is death. Embrace change.
    1. Re:I wonder... by Keebler71 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Probably less long that it would take him to get into everyone in the audience's...

      --
      "It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
    2. Re:I wonder... by bughunter · · Score: 2
      --
      I can see the fnords!
    3. Re:I wonder... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 5, Funny

      Funny story - I was in Austin at HoHoCon (I forget) somewhere around '93-'95. This was when the Radio Shack PRO-43 scanner could easily be modified to listen in on 800MHz cell phone transmissions . Well, there were a couple of guys from Motorola security there dressed up with earpieces, looking like SS agents. Later, in the rooms, we were listening to my PRO-43 on an external speaker, drifting from conversation to conversation. Side note: I really miss listening in - it was fascinating, boring, and disturbing to see what people really said. Anyway, we lucked out and got one of the Motorola guys' conversations, talking to someone back at base. He said he had seen us around with our little scanners, and didn't trust this transmission. "Hell, they're probably listening in right now," he said. We all busted out laughing..."Yeah...we are!" Good times.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  5. Ah yes... by Darkness404 · · Score: 2

    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.
    1. Re:Ah yes... by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

      Make the lie big, and stick to it...

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    2. Re:Ah yes... by davester666 · · Score: 2

      After 9/11 and the unabomber and the OKC bomber and others, citizens demanded to be protected, and politicians lapped it up.

      The TSA has been sexually assaulting millions of people for how long, and there has been no groundswell of support to stop them. Now they've expanded to having uniformed thugs stop and search people using buses and trains looking for terrorists.

      What makes you think they will stop there, and not expand to people in malls, office towers, or even just on a downtown street [because anyone could be a terrorist, and it would cripple American morale for a suicide bomber to kill a bunch of people in a mall or office tower or on the street].

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  6. Shared value ? by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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 !
  7. Who's he kidding? by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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!
    1. Re:Who's he kidding? by bug1 · · Score: 2

      Since when does the NSA respect privacy?

      He said that the NSA respects protection of privacy, he didnt says whos privacy.
      Obviously they dont respect the protection of other peoples privacy, that would defeat their purpose for existing. They certainly care about other people respecting the NSA's privacy.

    2. Re:Who's he kidding? by ehintz · · Score: 3, Informative

      Half their organization is the IAD, which is specifically about protecting government systems (and yeah, the other half is the SID, who are all about compromising every communique they can). So yeah, by design, if you're not the gov, they can has your cheezburgers.

      --
      ehintz
  8. Top Decision Maker by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 2

    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 !
  9. So...this amused me, by Starfleet+Command · · Score: 2

    I can't help but think this is abit like Darth Vader addressing the Rebel forces... just saying

    _______________________________

    "it's like, whatever..."

  10. Politics aside by Sparticus789 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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
  11. Speech leaked! by aaaaaaargh! · · Score: 2

    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!