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FBI Releases Its Files On DEF CON: Not Amused By Spot-the-Fed
v3rgEz writes: Not surprisingly, the FBI has compiled reports on notorious hacker gathering DEF CON, now released thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request. The files detail the lack of amusement at the Spot-the-Fed game, as well as which conference tracks attract the most interest. "In a bit of FOIrony, the file contains a copy of the Spot the Fed contest rules, including the facetious aside to feds offering t-shirts in exchange for agency coffee mugs."
someone needs to throw a pie at em, liven things up a bit : )
Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
They are at the Kaspersky booth
Holy (f)uck(ing) p(ar)en(t)he(ses) ... (what) t(h)e ((fuck)) is (wr)on(g) wi(t)h (u)??
It's English, not LISP.
No, it just means that you are not actually doing anything of any importance or interest.
You can't handle the truth.
The feds I've talked to at conferences generally don't mind, as long as there's no associated publicity that goes outside the conference -- that is, they don't want to be on someone's blog, and especially don't want to show up on a news site. Probably because they're at the conference on the government dime.
Yup. Those could be a CLE (Career Limiting Event). For the Feds, especially those with an interest in tech, such events are a low stress event and can be fun; even if they envy some of the tech as they have to work with tech that often is described as yesterday's technology tomorrow. The ones I've worked with have good senses of humor and, contrary to the opinions voiced here, have no desire to trample on anyone's rights.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
We are seeing many extreme examples of U.S. government corruption.
Uh... what other governments in supposedly non-corrupt jurisdictions respond to "Freedom Of Information Act" requests with ... actual information?
Try getting information on e.g. "Pussy Riot" out of the Putin government.
> The ones I've worked with have good senses of humor and, contrary to the opinions voiced here, have no desire to trample on anyone's rights.
Generally true--you've mostly got a lot of really good guys working intelligence. Most of the concern around massive surveillance--and part of the problem they really have a problem understanding it--is not what the guys in control of it now *do*, it's the *potential* for the wrong guy or guys to use it for evil.
Right now you have some *REALLY* sketchy stuff going on even with good guys in charge. Most notably, you've got a problem in that it's being used against criminals indirectly, which is a gross violation of the rights of a lot of criminals. Think parallel construction type projects. Wasn't there a big treasure trove of tax evasion data that mysteriously appeared a while back? Here we go: http://www.politico.com/mornin...
That *is* almost certainly our government or governments colluding to violate the rights of criminals, but the people doing it don't *care* because it's criminals.
I am a little upset about that because it's unconstitutional and because we overcriminalize generally, so almost everyone is breaking the law and they have something on everyone if they care to use it.
I am *much* more concerned with the potential for misuse not with the generally good guys dealing with it today, but by the bad guys who come in tomorrow, or the good-ish guys who get too tempted knowing how much easier it would be if they blackmail a senator or two based on knowledge of who they've slept with or what their daughter was up to on spring break. You're fundamentally dealing with power politics with an apparatus that could put a man like Frank Underwood in control of the country for decades, all without real transparency or accountability.
Most politicians don't have anywhere near that level of savvy--we are mostly saved by a combination of incompetence and a lot of really great guys in the intelligence community who would go a long way to prevent that kind of thing if they find out about it--but if we don't put incredibly good *processes* in place, engineered to prevent that kind of takeover, then it *will* happen if it has not already. Think what J. Edgar Hoover could have done with that information. Think what McCarthy did without it, and how much worse it could have been.