NBC Dateline Reporter flees Defcon 15

[mancroft]

An NBC reporter dicovered what it was like to be pursued by the 'geek paparazzi' after she tried unsuccessfully to go undercover at a hackers conference.

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article2209397.ece

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCvmkxO5hoQ

[Leftfield]

An NBC reporter dicovered what it was like to be pursued by the 'geek paparazzi' after she tried unsuccessfully to go undercover at a hackers conference.

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article2209397.ece

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCvmkxO5hoQ

Definition of 0wned...

[joft]

i dunno, i thought the "geek paparazzi" pwned itself by acting so retarded (probably not as bad as actual press i guess)

"Lindsay Lohan's pretty smart"? which dumbass said this? and the guy who tried to do a whiny girl voice... wow

[Ferrus]

She should have known that she was going to be utterly conspicuous by virtue of her being female in a geek convention. Poor undercover work, Donal MacIntyre wannabe.

[Limey]

Spot the Fed has been successful at Defcon for years, why a reporter would think she could just go on in and do an expose is beyond me.
It's like second guessing the federal government.

On one hand - sensationalist reporting that Black hats (or script kiddie wannabies at best) are going to admit to breaking federal law and on the other hand, breaking federal law by covertly filming the identity of a federal agent.

Fucking retarded, MSNBC's already low credibility as a news source has gone down in my book.

They need to do some research, (they hire those people don't they) on the meaning, history and modern day cultural place of "hacking" - that is, the true meaning, not the Robert Redford, bullshit Hollywood "lemme see if I can get in to XYZ corp" version.

This is almost as stupid as the reporters that got busted a year or so ago, trying to smuggle fake weapons past TSA

[silady79]

who was the genius that came up with this idea?

[Ferrus]

who was the genius that came up with this idea?
The convention or the ruse?

[silady79]

the ruse

[monolith]

funny

[Oso Mocoso]

Heh. I used to be a regular attendee at Black Hat/Defcon. I still miss it. I don't get why they tried to use a female reporter to infiltrate the place. Some guy with long blue hair and tattoos would have blended in better. Looking semi normal there, and being a little older, I had punk kids mistake me for a Fed.

The one year my wife trailed along to the show, all these sociologists wanted to ask her if she knew how to hack. When she said "yes" (not entirely an accurate statement ...) they'd just about squeal with glee. Then, she'd start talking about how she knew how to use Irix, and make custom 3-d animation tools in Maya. Not what they had in mind.

Anyway, the people who go to Defcon tend to be really paranoid and suspicious. A lot of them are law enforcement, spooks, or spies. Not a good place to try to get away with something like this. I wonder if the kiddies will harass her for a while? It strikes me this could be a seriously career-limiting move for a reporter.

--Oso

[Limey]

Heh. I imagine you lose your edge from going after nothing but stupid people.

I had to read that four times to get your meaning. I almost started writing a rant, you can still see the foam at the corners of my mouth.
You mean "stupid people" as in the people like the pedophiles, right? dumb asses trying to lay a 13yr old?

It first read as though you were saying she was going after stupid people at the conference.

My biggest experience with security conferences, especially smaller Federal Black hat ones, is that *if* you ever meet a real savant, especially a mathematic one, nothing will put you on your ass quicker. You can feel like a prehistoric monkey man who just figured out fire when you stand in the company of people that can figure out ciphers with their minds, or reverse engineer entire apps and operating systems and find, and more importantly, write exploit code for poor coding.

There are some superstars out there where, like the music industry, have not been recruited by the country's intelligence agency, it's almost a crime.

If it were the equivalent of the music industry, it would be like U2 still touring the club scene.
Times are definitely changing though...
I mean, what happened to DeVine - writer of the newer WEP aggregation attack tools?
He just disappeared one day.

[apple]

An NBC reporter dicovered what it was like to be pursued by the 'geek paparazzi' after she tried unsuccessfully to go undercover at a hackers conference.

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article2209397.ece

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCvmkxO5hoQ

It's obvious that MSNBC has run out of ideas for stories so they are copying from old episodes of Alias for inspiration.

[Ellipsis]

.
I mean, what happened to DeVine - writer of the newer WEP aggregation attack tools?
He just disappeared one day.

:mellow: disappeared?

[Limey]

:mellow: disappeared?

Yeah, he stopped responding on the forums, stopped releasing new tools and then his website went dead. Here's a reference from Jan 01 in a thread on a forum where he released tool support

http://netstumbler.org/showthread.php?t=18658

I'm not trying to start an urban legend that he got taken by Interpol, killed etc, but he did just abruptly go offline. Maybe he just went back to school and literally pulled the plug.

[Ellipsis]

Yeah, he stopped responding on the forums, stopped releasing new tools and then his website went dead. Here's a reference from Jan 01 in a thread on a forum where he released tool support

http://netstumbler.org/showthread.php?t=18658

I'm not trying to start an urban legend that he got taken by Interpol, killed etc, but he did just abruptly go offline. Maybe he just went back to school and literally pulled the plug.

That sure is weird....I am sure it involoves some mass cover up....some UFOs and powerful lasers.....oh and some huge epic space battle :)

Or else something completly random happened....shit happens.....

And for those who haven't already checked it out http://www.defcon.org/ thats the Defcon website...seems almost like an INTP meetup(x2000)