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Hackers Who Attended Black Hat and DefCon Conferences Say Hotel Security Personnel Demanded Access To Their Rooms (the-parallax.com)
More than two dozen hackers and security experts who attended security events last week say security personnel at the Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Caesars Palace, Flamingo, Aria, Cromwell, Tuscany, Linq, or Mirage hotels had entered their rooms. Security news site The Parallax reports: Except for Tuscany, which is independent, all of these hotels are owned by either Caesars Entertainment or MGM Resorts International. And of the three hotel companies, only Caesars returned a request for comment. Richard Broome, executive vice president of communications and government relations for Caesars Entertainment, whose Caesars Palace is co-hosting DefCon this year with the Flamingo, said that following the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history last year, "periodic" hotel room checks are now standard operating procedure in Las Vegas. On October 1, 2017, from his room at the Mandalay Bay, Stephen Paddock used semiautomatic weapons he'd outfitted with bump stocks to kill 58 people and wound at least 527 others attending a gated country music concert on the Strip below. [...] Two apparent Caesars security officers wearing hotel name tags displaying only the first names "Cynthia" and "Keith," respectively, as well as sheriff's style badges that looked like they came out of a Halloween costume kit, visited my room while I was writing this story. Cynthia told me that they are instructed to refer to the front desk guests who decline to allow their room to be searched.
After Cynthia and Keith declined to disclose their last names to me, I asked what they intended to do in the room. They told me that they would enter it, type a code into the room's phone line to signal that it's been checked, and then do a visual spot check. When I asked what they would be looking for, Cynthia replied, "WMDs -- that sort of thing." Other conference attendees reported similar but less pleasant interactions. Katie Moussouris, CEO of Luta Security, wrote on Twitter that two hotel security personnel were "banging" on her room door and "shouted" at her. She also said the hotel's security team supervisor "dismissed" her concerns over how the hotel was treating single, female travelers. Google security engineer Maddie Stone tweeted that a man wearing a light-blue shirt and a walkie-talkie entered her Caesars Palace room with a key, but without knocking, while she was getting dressed. "He left when I started screaming," she wrote, adding that a hotel manager, upon her request, said Caesars would look into whether the man was actually an employee. Stone tweeted that she left DefCon early because of the incident.
After Cynthia and Keith declined to disclose their last names to me, I asked what they intended to do in the room. They told me that they would enter it, type a code into the room's phone line to signal that it's been checked, and then do a visual spot check. When I asked what they would be looking for, Cynthia replied, "WMDs -- that sort of thing." Other conference attendees reported similar but less pleasant interactions. Katie Moussouris, CEO of Luta Security, wrote on Twitter that two hotel security personnel were "banging" on her room door and "shouted" at her. She also said the hotel's security team supervisor "dismissed" her concerns over how the hotel was treating single, female travelers. Google security engineer Maddie Stone tweeted that a man wearing a light-blue shirt and a walkie-talkie entered her Caesars Palace room with a key, but without knocking, while she was getting dressed. "He left when I started screaming," she wrote, adding that a hotel manager, upon her request, said Caesars would look into whether the man was actually an employee. Stone tweeted that she left DefCon early because of the incident.
Shooting him for what? It is hotel property. You gun nuts are bizarre people.
When you are a paying guest in a hotel room, you have rights. You are [theoretically] protected against illegal search and seizure until checkout time at the end of your contracted stay. Las Vegas was built by organized crime, however, and casinos are used to acting like organized criminals and will continue to do so as long as they can get away with it.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Have you ever read the little disclaimer on the inside of the doors in EVERY hotel/motel in America? They specifically say your room can be searched by management and they can terminate your stay at will. You can sue afterwards for repayment of fees but that would be all you can do.
In America you only have the rights the law gives you, otherwise you are at the mercy of businesses and the rich.
Go back to the fields, slave.
Immediately after the white guy shot up the concert last year, all hotels on the strip changed their rules. From that point on they would not observe the Do Not Disturb sign on doors and would do spot checks of hotel rooms.
Caesar's says they will check rooms daily.
That these checks happened isn't surprising since the hotels did publicly announce their new policies. Then again, had that white guy not gone a shooting spree, none of this would have happened. Actions have consequences and all that.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I've had multiple situations where I was incorrectly given a room that was already occupied, which resulted in a bit of a surprise upon entering 'my' room. After the first or second time, I've learned to knock before entering my hotel room for the first time just in case. But you believe that in such a situation it would have been justifiable for them to shoot me?
There's always the trusty door jamb and security bar.
https://smile.amazon.com/Maste...
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
A one-line socialist manifesto. Meanwhile in the US, "gun nuts" will continue to protect their own rights.
It might interest you to know that I am a gun owner who believes in self defense. I own a pistol, a shotgun, and two rifles of varying caliber, one of which is semi-automatic and holds approximately 14+1 and yet is California legal since it's tube-fed and the other of which is accurate way out past 300 yards. But I am also a realist who understands that everyone has to sleep sometime, and any one person is easily outnumbered by any other person who has at least one friend.
All government which does things for The People is socialist. The only distinction between such entities is how socialist they are. In my book, ours is not sufficiently socialist, but that is our fault. We must take responsibility and be involved in our government's progress, or it will continue to involve us in ways which we do not appreciate. Pretending otherwise can only come from a position of ignorance which results naturally from willfully ignoring the lessons of history.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"