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."

Comments

Re:I wonder...

[Keebler71]

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

Who's he kidding?

[TubeSteak]

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.

Re:I wonder...

[DNS-and-BIND]

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.