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From: louisg@vpnet.chi.il.us (Louis Giliberto)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Ides of March
Keywords: gail ides march security conference
Message-ID: <1991Feb21.080700.19274@vpnet.chi.il.us>
Date: 21 Feb 91 08:07:00 GMT
Organization: Vpnet Public Access
Lines: 60

Has anyone seen the announcement for the Ides of March computer conference?

The reason it caught my attention is that one of the speakers is Gail
Thackery.  

My question is: why?

Why is Gail speaking at a computer conference?  What does she know about
computers?

She probably does know a lot about prosecution, I don't doubt her ability as
a lawyer, but what does she know about computer crime specifically?

Ok.  We all know what she was involved in, but that just proves my point further.  Those aren't exactly what you would call "clean" busts.  And with Sundevil,
there weren't even that many (any?) busts made.

It doesn't say much for her ability to prosecute computer crime.  

What exactly is she going to speak about?  I can't figure that out.  Maybe she'sgoing to explain what KERMIT is or something.  Though, she should explain that
to law enforcement officials.

See, that's where I have this problem.  Here we have an individual speaking at
an industry conference, and this individual is not in the industry.  She does
not affect the industry except in destructive ways (if you want a list on how
it's been destructive, E-mail me.  It's too long for here).  

And with her being on the Well and all, and now there's a rumor of her getting
some type of "honor" with Barlow at the Comps, Sec, and Priv conference, I'm
beginning to wonder how one becomes an authority on computers.

Why not honor some beat cops who find some stolen PC's?  They have about as muchto do with computer crime and how it relates to the industry as Gail.

This is ridiculous.  Does anyone else see politics or something coming into playhere or is it just me?

If what law enforcement says is true, that most computer crime goes unreported
since companies don't want to publicly admit that they have security problems,
then aren't the companies bigger authorities on computer crime than lawyers
and cops and feds and what have you?

What can Gail tell an employee of AT&T or IBM or DEC or Maxis or Sierra or
whoever that they don't already know, and probably know better?  She can't tell
them how systems are broken into.  She can't tell them about a "ring" of
hackers/phreaks since there is no such animal.  She probably can't even thell
them what a macro is.

See, I agree with companies when they say that they don't want some punks
breaking into their computers.  I can even agree with arresting people who do.
What I can't agree with is persecuting people (ala Len Rose) or widespread
terror tactics (ala Sundevil).  If I were a hacker I'd rather have AT&T's
internal security knocking at my door rather than Gail & Co. seeing what they'vedone to people.  

The only reason I can see for Gail to be there is for someone to bury the 
hatchet with her and shove this mess into the background.  Well,
when you bury the hatchet with people who are experts at wielding one, you can
bet it'll end up in your back in the end.

Flames gratefully accepted.

Louis Giliberto
louisg@vpnet.chi.il.us