It was just about a year ago when the NSA came openly knocking with job opportunities at the annual DEF CON conference.  This year the organizers of the convention have asked the feds to stay away in response to the ongoing saga of Edward Snowden and PRISM.  There’s a high level of mistrust in light of those events and they apparently would like to have this particular conference fed-free.  Jeff Moss (aka “Dark Tangent”), the founder of DEF CON posted on the convention’s front page: FEDS, WE NEED SOME TIME APART:

For over two decades DEF CON has been an open nexus of hacker culture, a place where seasoned pros, hackers, academics, and feds can meet, share ideas and party on neutral territory. Our community operates in the spirit of openness, verified trust, and mutual respect.

When it comes to sharing and socializing with feds, recent revelations have made many in the community uncomfortable about this relationship. Therefore, I think it would be best for everyone involved if the feds call a “time-out” and not attend DEF CON this year.

This will give everybody time to think about how we got here, and what comes next. 

The Dark Tangent

In the NSA’s pitch a year ago, they were quite compromising in allaying perceptions of their standards, assuring the attendees that they were looking for talent, not histories:

If you have a few, shall we say, indiscretions in your past, don’t be alarmed. You shouldn’t automatically assume you won’t be hired. If you’re really interested, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot.

The NSA and other agencies recruit all over the place, and they are in direct competition with the corporate world.  One of the places they clearly recruit is at campuses around the country, seeking talent every place it can.  In the heat of all the controversy in the news right now, the recruiting has not taken a pause.

A recent confrontation at a college recruiting event where the NSA put on a presentation was sidetracked by a group of students who had some serious questions that touched on policy, the definition of adversary, and the reach of their global work.  The recording and transcipts reveal a group of students who appear to be quite well-informed and a pair of NSA language career recruiters who actually get into pretty deep discussion.

I’m just trying to get a clarification because you told us what the two nodes of your work are but it’s not clear to me what that encompasses and you’re being fairly unclear at the moment. Apparently it’s somebody who’s not just an enemy. It’s something broader than that. And yet, it doesn’t seem to encompass everyone.

NSA_M: So for us, umm, our business is apolitical. Ok. We do not generate the intelligence requirements. They are levied on us so, if there is a requirement for foreign intelligence concerning this issue or this region or whatever then that is. If you wanna use the word adversary, you ca– wemight use the word ‘target.’ That is what we are going after. That is the intelligence target that we are going after because we were given that requirement. Whether that’s adversary in a global war on terrorism sense or adversary in terms of national security interests or whatever – that’s for policymakers, I guess to make that determination. We respond to the requirements we are given, if that helps. And there’s a separation. As language analysts, we work on the SIG INT side of the house. We don’t really work on the information assurance (?) side of the house. That’s the guy setting up, protecting our communications.

Needless to say, the NSA and the government at large is feeling the heat right now.  This DEF CON development is just another indicator of ongoing image issues and in the eyes of many a matter of justice.   A Whitehouse.gov petition has successfully reached over 100,000 signatures that calls for a full and absolute pardon for Eric Snowden.   Thus far, there has been no response there, but the issue probably won’t go anywhere soon.  In the meantime, the NSA and other government agencies are probably looking for ways to fix their public image as it appears there will be an impact to their recruiting efforts.