4 ms·

There's nothing particularly wrong with them trying to recruit him (though opinions regarding covert internal observation services differ), but they're not just

by morsch 10y ago

There's nothing particularly wrong with them trying to recruit him (though opinions regarding covert internal observation services differ), but they're not just interested in him for his technical prowess. They're asking him to report on people in hacker spaces, hacker conventions, etc; ie. to spy on many of the people that participate in this forum. There's always been running gags about spooks at hacker conventions, but it's "nice" to have a confirmation (even if it's hard to verify).

hueving 10y ago
>There's always been running gags about spooks at hacker conventions, but it's "nice" to have a confirmation (even if it's hard to verify). Was the 'meet the feds' panel at DEFCON not enough of a confirmation? I've seen people at academic security conferences wearing name-tags with "National Security Agency" right in the employer field.
- morsch 10y ago
  Okay. Covert spooks.
  - dhimes 10y ago
    Like, admitting to a small lie to get away with a big one?
  - pmoriarty 10y ago
    This reminds me of G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday[1] where a government spy infiltrates an anarchist organization only to find out that the other members are also government spies. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Was_Thursday https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Was_Thursday
roel_v 10y ago
What 'running gags'? I've been to cons in Europe in the late 1990's where people would openly say they were from special departments of the police or intelligence services, and that they were there to recruit, learn about what's going on in the scene and to keep tabs on groups and 'scene' dynamics. This has been common practice and knowledge for 15+ years. I don't even see what's surprising about it.
- morsch 10y ago
  Who said anything about being surprised? And are you saying there were no running gags about it? FWIW, I'm assuming they would have asked him to report on fellow hackers without openly saying so. I got that implication from the article, but it doesn't say so and presumably they wouldn't have made that explicit when they approached him.

by morsch 10y ago

hueving 10y ago

>There's always been running gags about spooks at hacker conventions, but it's "nice" to have a confirmation (even if it's hard to verify). Was the 'meet the feds' panel at DEFCON not enough of a confirmation? I've seen people at academic security conferences wearing name-tags with "National Security Agency" right in the employer field.

morsch 10y ago
Okay. Covert spooks.
- dhimes 10y ago
  Like, admitting to a small lie to get away with a big one?
- pmoriarty 10y ago
  This reminds me of G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday[1] where a government spy infiltrates an anarchist organization only to find out that the other members are also government spies. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Was_Thursday https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Was_Thursday

roel_v 10y ago

What 'running gags'? I've been to cons in Europe in the late 1990's where people would openly say they were from special departments of the police or intelligence services, and that they were there to recruit, learn about what's going on in the scene and to keep tabs on groups and 'scene' dynamics. This has been common practice and knowledge for 15+ years. I don't even see what's surprising about it.

morsch 10y ago
Who said anything about being surprised? And are you saying there were no running gags about it? FWIW, I'm assuming they would have asked him to report on fellow hackers without openly saying so. I got that implication from the article, but it doesn't say so and presumably they wouldn't have made that explicit when they approached him.