Alright well I’m still at DefCon and it has a been an awesome trip so far. Me and my buddy Wish have had an amazing time, won some money, lost some money, learned some new tricks and “re-installed” our interest in security.

/***/Tech FLAME!!!/***/

However Friday, I was a part of history. Associate Producer at Dateline Michelle Madigan, was caught red handed trying to deface our kind. She was doing some “investigative journalism” on hackers. By this I mean, walking around with a undercover recording device\s. Now at DefCon taking photos and or recording is strictly prohibited without the consent of the included attendees. The exception is if you have Press Pass and have consent. Before the conference she was asked if she wanted a press pass. This tells us that she had contact with DefCon organizers before the conference and was recognized as a member of the press. Friday before the talks began, DefCon “goons” told us of a media mole and even showed her picture throughout the conference. Just before the amazing “Tactical Exploits” talk the organizers released a new contest called, “spot the lamer reporter”. Once they said she was in the room, she bolted out of the conference and left the area. Now it was said that she asked one of the goons to let her reveal a federal agent while wearing a undercover recording device. Revealing federal agents is part of the long DefCon tradition of the “spot the fed” contest. These federal agents don’t care if they are found out. They aren’t there to make arrests or anything malicious, they are here because they want to learn about the same things we want to learn AND … recruit for their agency. Now as hackers this isn’t a big deal, she is only doing some social engineering to get her story. One of the things that bothers me is she went about it so pathetically and just outright lame. If you were going to spy on someone you DO NOT tell a colleague of their’s that you are going to run to the bathroom to put on your recording device. She also didn’t fit in very well. There was maybe … 4 blond girls at the entire conference of 2 or 3 thousand. *on a quick side note, there were a lot more girls there this year* Anyways, if your going to do something against the rules you shouldn’t do it in such a brainless and idiotic manner. Not to mention if she had a press pass she probably would have gotten all the information she needed. In the past years, the press and media have worked very well with the conference. However people that try to deface and blemish what we are and stand for will not be treated kindly in our community. We extended our hand and gave her an opportunity to learn about us and help the world understand what we are about. But she failed to meet the basic ethics and morals of not just our society but even on a more human level. Maybe she will be given a second chance, but until that time, here is some information a quick google will tell you about her.

Name: Michelle Madigan
Possible Email Addresses: michelle.madigan@gmail.com , mmadigan@gmail.com , michellemadigan@yahoo.com , michelle.madigan@nbcuni.com , michelle.madigan@nbc.com
Possible Address: 2975 Independence Ave Bronx, NY 10463 or 58 Prospect Pl Brooklyn, NY 11217
Possible Phone Numbers: (718) 548-1716 or (718) 398-8954
Friendster Address: http://www.friendster.com/26260165
Linkedin Address: http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=1089481
Title: Associate Producer at Dateline NBC
Location: New York, NY
Past
* Assistant Producer at Dateline NBC / NBC News
* Production Associate at Today Show / NBC News
Education
*
Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism

I’m posting this “possibly correct information” not for malicious intent but rather for my own self gain. She was trying to use us to further her career in an unethical manner. Now I’m not one to talk about hacker ethics because it varies so much. However I believe in a “eye for an eye, ear for an ear” system. So I’m using this information in hopes that my page will be googled and generating traffic thus increasing the chances of my ads being clicked and positively effecting my finical status. So Michelle, your personal information is worth around … $0.01 per 300 page visits or $0.10 per ad click.

Here are some good links on the story:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/08/media-mole-at-d.html
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=41471
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/04/defcon_exposes_muckraker/

/***/END Tech FLAME!!!/***/

26 days until D-Day