Two Slashes

(Thanks to Randy for the post title idea. )

If you didn’t already know, Defcon is this week.  For the uninitiated, Defcon is basically the world’s biggest hacker convention, started by Jeff Moss.  (Well, I’d call them ‘crackers’, but for reasons of word association, they choose to use the word ‘hacker’ so that’s what I’m going to be using for the remainder of the post as well.)  Geeks from all over the world come together to trade tricks, put their skills up with or against one another (in fun), and give discussions about various topics people find interesting or helpful.  In fact, it’s such a popular place that attendees are routinely barred from entering the United States (the convention is held in Las Vegas) or sometimes arrested.  It’s actually so popular that numerous agents from the FBI attend just to get an idea of how far behind their skills are, and what the current “hot targets” are.

It’s because of this last item that one of the Defcon activities exist.  Called “Spot the FBI Agent”, it consists of nothing more than convention members ratting out people they feel are FBI agents.  Purely out of fun, it’s designed just to play to the paranoids and very detail-oriented individuals.  In fact, any journalists attending need to get permission to do almost anything, ensuring the security of people admitting any crime they may have committed as long as the journalist and their group honors the “contract” they have signed.

Of course, regular attendees only have their code of honor as a safeguard against people being arrested over admissions of guilt, among other things.  Which is why one of the Dateline producers, Michelle Madigan, was caught and publicly lambasted for trying to covertly record admissions and proceedings inside the conference without anyone’s approval…and without a journalist’s badge.

All I have to ask is…why?  I’m sure it might be interesting to record and play back to the world the underground goings-on of the security world (there’s more than just computer security at stake at the conference, you know) and spin them in a broadcast in such a way as to make people paranoid over using postage stamps or doing trivial things…but as we all (at least, those of us in even the loosest of circles) know, not only does this all happen without a glance by “civilians”, but it’s a necessary problem.  Yes, I said necessary.  Afraid?  (I’m more than happy to discuss it, but not now.  Get in touch with me or wait for me to post about it.)

Anyway, back to the why?  What would possess someone to attempt to infiltrate a meeting of the utmost professionals of the stealth/surveillance/underground attack trade just for a five-minute story?  I mean, FBI agents can’t even walk around,and they’re not even supposed to make any indication that they’re an agent; it was only a matter of time before someone discovered the plot.

This isn’t “To Catch A Hacker.”  This is people sharing knowledge and helping to make the present and future a better place, even if it costs some people their freedom or a few dollars (in bandwidth and beverages of course).  Remember, without testing our current systems, we cannot strive to improve them, and consequentlythe quality of life as well.  How are we to compare our level of quality of life if it’s always the same?  How would we know how much better it could be?  This is people improving the lives of others; sometimes at great personal risk.  I mean, there are people who write virii just to patch the holes the virus uses to cause damage (alright, in the case of that link, the backdoor was a bit over the top…but all in all it did help, right?).  And as much as anyone wants to believe it, there are good people in the fight too.

To be really lame and create a chess example, picture the board full of all the pieces you have at the start - bishops, rooks, pawns, and so forth - and the colors stand for both sides of the puzzle.  Picture a game going on, but when a piece is supposed to be taken off the board, it merely gets moved somewhere else on the board.  All in all, it sounds like a game with no clear-cut winner, right?  But think of it this way as well - both sides get to continue to see how each person plays, improve their own game, and experiment with various counterattacks in a neverending cycle.  (Alright, maybe this example is lame, but it gets the point across.)

Gah, I’ll shut up now and quit reporting news.  Though I can only hope, with any luck she’s probably clearing her desk sometime, not only because of being fired, but out of her public humiliation.  And I smell a new game (or modification to an existing one ) for next year.  It’s just a shame I couldn’t go.