From: Stephen Cobb <stephen@iu.net>
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 08:47:28 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: fbi, crypto, and defcon
Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19960730213125.0038d8ec@iu.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 04:29 AM 7/30/96 -0700, Cerridwyn Llewyellyn <ceridwyn@wolfenet.com> wrote:
>        
>At this year's DefCon (last weekend), there were two speakers from the
>recently created FBI San Francisco Computer Crime division. they were there 
>as spokesmen for the FBI, but people could talk to them later and ask any
>questions they liked, and "the answers may surprise you".  Evidence that 
>maybe some goons really do have a clue, but are still too afraid to do
>anything about it... //cerridwyn//

I thought it was pretty cool that they even showed up, and the respect they
showed for people with good technical skills was, IMHO, impressive. They
were candid about the role they play and stood by the code of behaviour they
are sworn to uphold.

We simply don't have enough information to judge them. These guys may be
campaigning for political change in their spare time. They are enforcing
laws passed by a democratically elected government, which is not perfect,
but a long way from tyranny. They made the point, several times, that if we
don't like the laws we are free to try and get them changed, which some of
us are trying to do.

Okay, so their boss is part of the law making process, subject to the checks
and balances that exist between the three branches of US government. They
are in a position to supply their boss with data and I am personally
impressed with their grasp of some of that data (it sounds to me like they
are telling their boss that hackers like the ones at Defcon are not the
problem).

All of us who have some understanding of these issues need to do our best to
educate the public and the politicians, even if we have to start from the
"See Jane hack" level (pun intended). Otherwise dumb laws will be passed and
then we will have to engage in mass civil disobedience (which I have
personally done in the past). Stopping bad laws from becoming law is a lot
easier than overturning them later.

Respectfully...Stephen (hacker jeopardy scorekeeper)