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When Your Uber Driver is a Spy

posted by martyb on Monday August 06 2018, @01:32AM   
from the do-you-speak-geek? dept.

Fnord666 writes:

Like other migrating beasts, hackers travel huge distances for feeding, breeding, and breaking things every summer -- at Defcon in Las Vegas. The way they move about the city is driven primarily by the availability of free booze at corporate parties or the convenience of air-conditioned infosec habitats; the heat makes them torpid. As such, everyone takes taxis, Ubers, and Lyfts everywhere, day and night.

The mostly-male migration forgoes the braggadocio of colorful plumage as seen in avian species. Instead, they establish social dominance and attract attention of potential mates and recruiters by bragging. Thus, according to my taxi-related experiences while covering the conference over the years, Las Vegas car drivers overhear way more of infosec's boasting and swagger than they probably should.

Ferrying hackers and feds during "hacker summer camp" has got to be a dream gig for a spy. How could it not be? Spying on hackers is usually more trouble than it's worth. Thanks to Uber and Lyft's gig economy it's much easier. No union, no problem (for them at least).

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/03/when-your-uber-driver-is-a-spy/

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Original Submission

• the stupid, it burns the stupid, it burns (Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Monday August 06 2018, @01:56AM (1 child)

  by khallow (3766) on Monday August 06 2018, @01:56AM (#717696) Journal

  The mostly-male migration forgoes the braggadocio of colorful plumage as seen in avian species. Instead, they establish social dominance and attract attention of potential mates and recruiters by bragging. Thus, according to my taxi-related experiences while covering the conference over the years, Las Vegas car drivers overhear way more of infosec's boasting and swagger than they probably should.
  
  Ferrying hackers and feds during "hacker summer camp" has got to be a dream gig for a spy. How could it not be? Spying on hackers is usually more trouble than it's worth. Thanks to Uber and Lyft's gig economy it's much easier. No union, no problem (for them at least).

  The premise is ridiculous. Uber and Lyft are now "attack vectors" for the laziest spy agencies on Earth who can't be bothered to spy on "Infosec" via taxi. It's too much like work with all those taxi labor unions. I get that the author is a tasty dinosaur that doesn't like being on the menu for the gig economy. But perhaps he could spend more time coming up with reasons that make sense to someone with a brain larger than a pea?

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• Re:the stupid, it burns (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 06 2018, @04:06AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 06 2018, @04:06AM (#717737)

  Uber and Lyft are now "attack vectors" for the laziest spy agencies on Earth who can't be bothered to spy on "Infosec" via taxi.

  Those agencies do bother [wired.com]. However, getting the deeper details may be impossible inside the conference space - the hackers know there are Feds amongst them. However tracking the hackers in taxis is going to be an expensive proposition with no guaranteed benefit. You should be glad the Feds refrain from wasting you tax money.

  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.

  Parent