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Security Researcher Attacked While At Conference
New submitter fineous fingers writes "U.S. computer security researcher Georgia Weidman has revealed on her blog that a fellow speaker at the Confidence security conference in Krakow, Poland attempted to rape her. The attack occurred in her hotel room in the early morning hours of 28 May. Luckily, Georgia was able to fend her attacker off by clocking him in the head with a coffee mug. I was personally at this conference, but was staying at a different hotel and found out about it after the fact. It was Georgia herself that told me after she gave her fantastic talk on Leveraging Mobile Devices on Pentests. That she was able to give a flawless presentation later that day and had the courage to talk about the attack on her blog shows how awesome she really is."
He denies it. She presented no evidence. He presented none either, even though he is under no obligation to. No charges files. Her word against his.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
As a male I feel ashamed that such a male exists among us.
That's muddle-headed thinking. Be proud or ashamed of your own actions, not those of strangers.
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
Been drinking a bit too much caffeine today?
While this alleged incident is reprehensible, I don't think it warrants going John Wayne Bobbit on the perp. It's no excuse for the behavior however I do wonder why from the blog posting there's this:
Note: There will be no names named here. The perpetrator is not named. Likewise the heroes of the story who probably saved me from going to jail and at the very least comforted me when it felt like the floor was going to fall through are left unnamed. That said if you want to know the names I am willing to discuss it privately.
Okay, this raises a few questions, no names mentioned, no charges filed and I guess maybe the Police were involved or not but... shit, the blog posting reads more like "The Vagina Monologues" and goes wandering around. It may make a great chapter in an upcoming novel but I'm not discounting what she's saying either, it just doesn't ring true when you won't say "Look, this MF named Mr. ______ tried to rape me. And these other folks ______ _______ saw it." Look, if you're assaulted go to the authorities, file charges and name names. If this guy is a bad apple and he needs to be called out otherwise this is an incident that *maybe* happened and without at least some other folks stepping forward and saying "yeah, I saw it" or "yeah, he raped me" then these can be considered hearsay or fiction. If you're going to put it in a Blog, put the names down for Christ sake.. Shit last year two guys making jokes were lambasted as being chauvinists all across the Internet for something that is magnitudes less significant than this supposed incident. You know what, I call that offensive but it's also free speech.
Now, I'm not condoning violence against women, especially Rape but let's also not forget how lynchings start and recently the infamous case of DSK and how that all fell apart. Yeah DSK was(or is) a womanizer and probably didn't deserve all the BS he received, or maybe he did: including losing his position with the World Bank. I kind of put these kinds of stories in along with what Roseann Barr did a few years ago with "Repressed Memories."
So please put the chainsaw down and look objectively at what this person and their story and certainly cheer for her standing up to this guy but don't start eviscerating every guy out there.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
I come here to /. to read about computers, software, and technology in general.
Yet what do I actually encounter? Some article about a bunch of drama that allegedly took place at some obscure conference in eastern Europe a month ago.
But what's worse is reading through comments and encountering one like this one from "decora". Why is a comment talking about violently killing somebody, then butchering the victim's genitals, and finally mailing them to the victim's mother modded up to "5, Insightful"?
Come on. That's the kind of crap I expect to see modded up at a place like reddit. And that's exactly why I don't visit reddit, but come here instead. We shouldn't have to encounter nonsense submissions like this one, nor utterly stupid (if not outright disgusting) comments modded up so highly.
Can /. please go back to focusing on technology, rather than junk like this?
No one really knows how they'd handle such a situation until they are in it. Past thoughts and declarations might predispose an untrained person to a certain action, but when a harsh reality comes suddenly and unexpectedly it's all about instinct and fight or flight responses.
I've been enough dangerous situations to know that I'm neither a courageous man nor a coward, but simply a man. I saved a roofied woman from being raped by a group of strangers and have a heavily scared face to remind me of my moment of courage. On the other hand, I ran like hell when skinheads raided my friend's party with baseball bats and knives. I have the memory of standing over my friend's hospital bed as he was nursed back to health to remind me of my moment of cowardice.
The lady from the article is alive and was able to free herself from her attacker. That is what matters.
Ask Whoopie. I hear she's an expert on what is and isn't really "rape rape".
Two people go into a hotel room, apparently uninjured.
They subsequently leave the hotel room with documented physical injuries.
The physically weaker person provides a detailed account of their version of events, claiming that the physically stronger person attacked them, they were luckily able to fight off the stronger person and escape, but that the local (foreign) police did not pursue this case due to a lack of conclusive evidence.
The physically stronger person responds to these allegations with a blog post titled Lies, nuts, and the quest for attention, which focuses on ad hominem attacks and how very, very butthurt he is that people are even considering these allegations. The blog post does not provide any alternate explanation for the events that resulted in injuries to both parties, or any new information at all.
I'm having difficulty coming up with a rational explanation that doesn't include the stronger person being a predator who engineered a situation where they expected to face no consequences for their actions due to the victim being in an unfamiliar environment with limited support, the disinclination of local law enforcement to become involved in a dispute between foreign nationals, and engineered absence of conclusive evidence.
My opinion? I have no doubt that her story is substantively true. The argument that 'the polish police did not arrest me, so I must not have done it' is about as convincing as tissue paper to anyone who has seen the inconsistent results of even well-trained and well-equipped police forces-- if what we've seen so far is all he has to offer then he should be rightly shunned by the tech community and then some.
Given the alleged crime and narcissistic tone of the blog post, there are likely similar victims out there. Hopefully they will come forward as well.
"We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't believe in tolerance and free speech." - David Brin
I have no doubt that her story is substantively true.
I can think of at least three rational alternative that while unlikely prevent any claim of "no doubt".
None of these are particularly likely given what we currently know, but it is absurd to have "no doubt".
His take is on his blog: http://blog.gont.com.ar/2013/06/lies-nuts-and-quest-for-attention.html. Offering no insights on what happened (he's entitled to that stance).
My take: He did go to her room. There was some sort of skirmish and both got wounded. The rest is unclear. BUT, if I were invited to someones room, and things started to get out of hand, with fighting and violence and whatnot in the air, I'd GET THE F OUT! Even if there's no attempted rape involved, you don't fight with a woman in her hotel room, even if it's just to avoid accusations. Okay, so that doesn't prove anything, I know, but you know, it is a little weird.
Wouldn't your statistics for "rate of sexual assault" be lower if you didn't act on rape accusations very often, as we see in this case?