I applaud Jeff's (DarkTangent) stance on this. I've been to 7 Defcons now and the Feds have always been treated fairly. Even the media has been treated with respect, so long as they are transparent and honest about being media [1]. Honesty and openness have been betrayed this year with the Snowden leaks, and I'm glad people are finally taking a stand.
I'm curious other security conventions will take the same stance.
[1] One year a reporter disguised herself as an attendee instead of admitting she was a reporter, and was attempting to get hackers on record saying that they've hacked into <this> and <that> important system. She was found out and summarily chased (literally) out the convention.
I'm extremely impressed with DarkTangent, this must have been a difficult move for him to make, especially given that the NSA Director(DernZa) was the keynote speaker at the last defcon. He is probably getting a mountain range of shit right now from the feds.
" Over the past two decades, hackers at Defcon and the feds have been circling each other suspiciously. The nation's top "spook" -- National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander -- giving a keynote at the hacker confab, shows just how much tensions have mellowed." http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57481689-83/nsa-director-fi...
DT is famous for cultivating controversy for PR. AIUI, in the past Defcon has orchestrate [big company's] lawyers literally walking on stage to shut down a vulnerability disclosure talk.
I'm curious other security conventions will take the same stance.
[1] One year a reporter disguised herself as an attendee instead of admitting she was a reporter, and was attempting to get hackers on record saying that they've hacked into <this> and <that> important system. She was found out and summarily chased (literally) out the convention.