Dateline NBC 'mole' outed, booted at Defcon 15 (Dinosaur Media™ Humiliation)

InfoWorld ^ | August 03, 2007 | Robert McMillan, IDG News Service

[SteveMcKing]

DefCon ping

[JRios1968]

Hmmm...that limit must be evaluated using L'Hopital rule...

lim x=>0 (sin x)/x = lim x=>0 (cos x)/1 = 1

[Lurker]

For later.

L

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

I disagree with the etymology listed for "pwned." It's origin was most likely in multiplayer games (which is very common for l33t speech), though perhaps borrowing from *nix/hacker-speak. The substitution of the "p" for the "o," however, is almost certainly a product of multiplayer games. After a particularly humiliating kill, a player could be said to have "owned" the other player. The o-p transformation then would either be an accidental mispelling that becomes intentional (the "o" and "p" are next to each other on a QWERTY keyboard... see the use of 1s for exlamation points to mimic hurried typing: pwn3d U!!!!11!1!) or an imitation of part of a smiley (the p, often used in conjunction with a colon for "eyes" or a semicolon for "winking"), usually standing for a tongue sticking out (:P). Neither of these modifications make sense in the context of hacking, but they make perfect sense as part of evolving terminology in a frantically-typed multiplayer game.

This is Free Republic, people... let's make sure that even the little things are correct! *grin*

[theFIRMbss]

>A hacker conference is probably not the best place to try out your undercover-fu unless you know what you’re doing

These guys suspect that Madigan was just a plant, a red herring to attract attention and let a real reporter get in un-noticed!

[CodeToad]

Many of these types of meetings are for sharing information not intended for public consumption for security reasons. These guys share the information to help them to protect computer systems and they do not want others to know the weaknesses or hacking techniques. People seem to attribute nefarious goals to these types of meetings.

[N3WBI3]

My bud who got sent by his employer as a business trip, I was so envious. I have family in vegas and Im going to see if I can get out to it next year..

[N3WBI3]

not really, its pretty easy to obtain video of the whole conference. She could have stayed with a press pass..

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Statement: "Dateline NBC 'mole' outed, booted at Defcon 15..."

Response: Those who 'outed' and removed the media creature apparently failed miserably. They did not whip her from the conference.

[SteveMcKing]

Response: Those who 'outed' and removed the media creature apparently failed miserably. They did not whip her from the conference.
 

We can definitely expect the "I REALLY DIDN'T RUN OUT" statement from her in the near future.

[norton]

I'll admit it:
That was definition number 6 in Wikipedia.

I just get a kick out of reading geek-speak that someone actually thought would be understood by the rest of us in the masses.

[isom35]

at least she’s semi-cute, maybe dateline should stick with “to catch a predator”

[Darksheare]

“Oh they’re making fun of me and they’re taking pictures! I don’t like it!”
LOL!

[NCLaw441]

From the 1% of lawyers made to look bad by the other 99% I thank you for what will pass as kind words about lawyers.

[kcvl]

According to DefCon staff, Madigan had told someone she wanted to out an undercover federal agent at DefCon. That person in turn warned DefCon about Madigan’s plans. Federal law enforcement agents from FBI, DoD, United States Postal Inspection Service and other agencies regularly attend DefCon to gather intelligence on the latest techniques of hackers. DefCon holds an annual contest called Spot the Fed, in which attendees out people in the audience they think are undercover federal agents. The contest is good-natured, but the feds who get caught are generally ones who don’t mind getting caught.

DefCon staff say that Madigan was asked four times — two times on the phone and two times at the conference — if she wanted to obtain press credentials, but she declined.

DefCon staff lured her to a large hall telling her that the Spot the Fed contest was in session and that she could get a picture of an undercover federal agent at the contest. When she sat down, Jeff Moss, DefCon’s founder, announced that they were changing the game. Instead of Spot the Fed, they were going to play Spot the Undercover Reporter and then announced, “And there’s one in here right now.” Madigan, realizing she’d been had, jumped from her seat and bolted out the door with reporters carrying cameras chasing after her through the parking lot and to her car.

http://tinyurl.com/2jl26k

[kcvl]

They knew when her plane took off. They knew when her plane landed. They knew when she picked up her non-press attendee pass (human in the vernacular). They followed her around. They knew when she walked into the ladies room to wire up, camera and sound. She knew that the camera was not allowed but did it anyway, and told a goon that she was doing so.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=41471

We are told she was walking around ‘panning’ her bag and at times holding it like a camera. In the above shot, you can see the lens on her handbag, it is the shiny spot above the two silver circles. Michelle was told that a fed would be outed in the largest room in the show, and off she went.

Oddly enough, Michelle Madigan would not answer questions shouted at here, ranging from “What were you thinking?” to “Can I have your badge?” I guess she now knows what it feels like to be on the others side of the ‘to catch a predator’ stories.

In the end, she got into her car and promptly drove into a dead end corner of the parking lot. Needless to say, there was a large crowd of people who found it very amusing when she had to back up and drive through the crowd to get out of the parking lot.

The moral of the story? Don’t screw around with people who are smarter than you. I guess Dateline NBC hasn’t learned this lesson.

[kcvl]

[Marcus Oreallyus]

You would think any one at NBC would do their research.
http://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-15/dc-15-speakers.html
After looking at Panel 1: Meet the Fed, do you think these type of people would waste their time in Vegas with a bunch of petty criminals? With discussions about things that impact a county’s infrastructure, how shallow can you be as a reporter? Wow, I guess someone at NBC had a grudge against nerds that goes back to high school.