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DefCon and Die Hard

For over 20 years the geek-meet that is DefCon has been "the" place where geeks gather to show their prowess at cracking security and demonstrate their ability to exploit previously unknown vulnerabilities.

The most interesting aspect of these meets is that the USA's federal authorities have been welcome guests.

The FBI, CIA and even the NSA have been present and treated the meetings as an opportunity to engage with the hacker community on a kind of neutral no-man's-land.

To date, this arrangement has worked well for all parties, allowing authorities to see exactly what's going on within the ranks of the hacker subculture and even recruit highly skilled operatives from the ranks of the hacker-elite. On the other hand, hackers have been able to "strut their stuff" in front of law enforcement authorities that would, under other circumstances, throw the cuffs on them and haul their arses off to jail for daring to demonstrate their prowess.

This year however, it's going to be different... very different.

The organisers of DefCon have issued a statement advising that the Federal agencies will not be welcome. In fact, they've called for a "time-out" during which they've asked the FBI, CIA, NSA etc not to attend at all.

This is seen as a breakdown in the relationship between even the benevolent white-hat hacker community and the USA's spy agencies -- most likely in light of the recent revelations of Ed Snowden and his subsequent persecution.

Of course it is very unlikely that the Feds will stay away, it's far more likely that their presence will become covert rather than overt.

There can be absolutely no doubt that the venue where DefCon is scheduled to be held will be liberally sprinkled with hidden microphones and cameras, allowing the authorities to watch every presentation and log ever word spoken. This means that the "stay away" decree is more symbolic than realistic.

However, it does mean that the mutual respect between the two parties, which has taken decades to build, is now at risk.

Hackers who previously focused on testing the security of hardware and software systems may shift their attention to creating privacy solutions with the intention of thwarting the snooping activities of "big brother". The Feds may also find it significantly harder to recruit white-hat hackers to do their bidding from within the ranks of those at the DefCon conference.

The problem with a fascist state is that it soon finds it has more enemies than friends - to the point where eventually it is all alone and greatly outnumbered. One only has to look at history to see this.

Unfortunately, I suspect that none of those living lives of total paranoia in the name of a war against terror have never studied history and are therefore doomed to repeat it.

If it's a battle between some of the brightest hacker-minds in the world and an army of civil servants and bureaucrats, I know where the smart money would go.

Who's seen Die Hard 4?

The problem is that although hackers are very real, there's no equivalent to John McClane in the real-world.

The next revolution is unlikely to be at the barrel of a gun -- but it could be at the end of a modem and without white-hat hackers on their side, the state looks to be very, very vulnerable.

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