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At a Hacker Conference, Plenty of Friendly Feds

LAS VEGAS — Why are the Feds hobnobbing with hackers?

Defcon, a convention of computer hackers here, was crawling with federal agents on Friday. They smiled, shook hands, handed out their business cards, spoke on a panel called “Meet the Federal Agent 2.0″ and were really, really nice.

Naturally, the Feds have been hanging out at hacker gatherings for years for the purposes of snooping. “Cloak and dagger,” as one federal agent put it.

This time they came with another purpose: to schmooze, impress and, perhaps ultimately, lure. The United States Cyber Command, the Pentagon’s Internet defense arm, “has a workforce issue,” said Daron Hartvigsen, special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. “We have needs that some in this community can solve. We need folks with skills.”

Government agencies especially need computer professionals with cybersecurity skills.

At Defcon, these skills were in ample supply — and they can alternately thrill and scare. There were hackers and lockpickers here, problem solvers, troublemakers and assorted geeks. There were attendees with mohawks and blue hair, and some with blue mohawks. One wore a cape. A few wore kilts. Those without tattoos seemed to be in a minority. And most, whether out of fear or conceit, insisted on using their digital nicknames rather than their real ones: LosT, alien, Abstract.

In their midst were Internet crime investigators representing the Army, Navy, Air Force and NASA. The Federal Bureau of Investigation set up a recruiting table at a related conference of security professionals earlier in the week. An official from the National Security Agency was scheduled to speak to next-generation hackers at a two-day event called Defcon Kids on Saturday.

For the Feds, it seemed less an aggressive recruiting drive than a public diplomacy mission. They spoke about their computer science degrees. They took pains to describe themselves as lovable geeks under their crew cuts. Ryan Pittman, an ex-cop who now works cyber cases in the U.S. Army’s criminal investigations division, said the convention was an opportunity to whittle away the Feds’ image as “jackbooted thugs.” Ahmed Saleh, a cyber crimes investigator with NASA, described a job that might be appealing “if you’re a geek and you wanna catch the bad guys.”

There seemed to be plenty of receptive hackers. Christine Banek, a 29-year-old software programmer with plum-colored hair, sidled up to Mr. Saleh after the panel and asked if his agency was still hiring. She said she had applied online and had not heard back. “If they were offering, I would totally take it,” she said. Later, she suggested aloud that the government legalize marijuana. Positive drug tests generally disqualify a candidate from a law enforcement position.

The audience had many questions. What do you do if you’re asked to do something you’re morally opposed to? Mr. Saleh said he had never been put in that situation, but that an employee at Starbucks could face a similar dilemma. (Really, on the morality of soy lattes?) Do you use informants in cyber cases, as you would in other cases? Yes. Do the Feds attack the computer systems of suspects? No. How seriously do the Feds take Lulz Security, the loose-knit cyber vigilante group under the F.B.I.’s scanner lately for attacking government and corporate Web sites, asked a young man from Sacramento. Mr. Hartvigsen said it would not be prudent to comment on an active case, offering only: “We investigate folks who break the law.”

One could be forgiven for wondering whether the Feds might feel compelled to do a bit of cloak-and-dagger at the conference too. After all, there was some braggadocio from self-described members of the hacking collectives that are under investigation. One prominent member, who goes by the nickname Sabu, posted taunts on Twitter Friday afternoon, suggesting, probably falsely, that the Feds were unwittingly hobnobbing

with him too at DefCon. He wrote: “LOL to the two Feds that came to the booth.”

 

 

 

 

 

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