[HN Gopher] Bomb threat causes mass evacuation at DEF CON hackin...
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Bomb threat causes mass evacuation at DEF CON hacking convention
Author : rntn
Score : 132 points
Date : 2023-08-14 13:17 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theregister.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theregister.com)
| thih9 wrote:
| The 2009 fake atm [1] was at least creative.
|
| This just seems pointless.
|
| [1]: https://techcrunch.com/2009/08/03/defcon-participants-
| fooled...
| local_issues wrote:
| Good lesson to be learned here about the impact of working around
| the edges vs. addressing your adversaries head on
| anigbrowl wrote:
| _Summer Camp is over and what has been done? Have aspirations
| shriveled in the Sun?_
|
| Ref (1983, NSFW). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsdhq1czay0
| momirlan wrote:
| real hackers were having fun ?
| SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
| That's a Denial of Service.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Sounds like it was distributed as well
| FickleRaptor wrote:
| Having been there personally, there's a lot of unknown. But
| here's the core of what happened as I saw it and as I gained
| information from friends with internal con communications access.
| A package was identified as suspicious, likely by defcon staff
| and Caesar's security was called to investigate. Caesar's
| security decided it may have represented a threat and asked
| Defcon staff to evacuate the building. Goons began calmly
| notifying and clearing rooms pushing people to the west exits
| toward Linq and Harrahs. People grabbed their stuff and calmly
| walked out. Most people appeared to recognize that it was likely
| a false alarm. Nobody panicked. Several thousand people exited
| promptly and without incident. Bags were not searched on exit.
| This was not a ploy to search personal property without a warrant
| because almost everything got taken with the attendees who
| brought it. It is possible the bag/box/package had
| gunpowder/tannerite/rdx/etc residue on it from shooting
| activities either part of the Defcon shoot or other shooting
| activities unrelated to Defcon. It is unlikely that Defcon will
| release any additional detail past this:
| https://x.com/defcon/status/1690740778124115969?s=46&t=WtjuZ... A
| lot of people are teasing their friends about leaving their bags
| unattended and causing it. These are jokes and should not be
| taken seriously. I was startled at the professionalism shown by
| Caesar's, Defcon staff, and attendees. Vetcon was cancelled
| midstream and the main stage party was cancelled as well. DJ gear
| was left behind for the evening. Much of the con moved to the
| Linq bar. Don't make stupid assumptions about any of this.
| jetbalsa wrote:
| There is some scuttle butt from some of the goon's I've been
| overhearing, It was a package with a planted scent/treat
| package that they use to train the bomb dogs. You can imagine
| what happened from there. I suspect it was a attendee playing a
| bad practical joke on DEF CON
| FickleRaptor wrote:
| There's a lot of scuttlebutt aka rumor about the situation.
| There's little value in idle speculation on this topic.
| There's been no suggestion of this on the con internal staff
| channels that I can identify. Which makes me think it's a BS
| suggestion.
| andromaton wrote:
| They waited for the guy to finish his karaoke song to ask
| everyone to clear that room. It was a weird combination of
| "this is serious", "don't ask", and "don't want to bother you"
| red-iron-pine wrote:
| maybe they were enjoying the song?
| andromaton wrote:
| I assume sarcasm. Audience definitely enjoying song.
| mike_d wrote:
| Could we maybe clear up the title (even though the original
| article gets it wrong too)?
|
| A threat about a bomb was never made by anyone. It was a
| suspicious package.
|
| Here is the official statement:
| https://twitter.com/defcon/status/1690740778124115969
| fname wrote:
| Allegedly owned by someone that attended the DEFCON Shoot event
| where gun powder was transferred to the package, tipping a dog
| doing a random search in the Forums.
| mike_d wrote:
| That would be wild. Bomb dogs usually are not trained to hit
| on ammunition since every officer on a scene is carrying
| some. Gunpowder is also a low explosive (meaning it burns at
| subsonic speed) which sucks for making things go boom.
| asynchronous wrote:
| Got a source? I was there and never heard that rumor.
| throwawaylinux wrote:
| Who alleged that?
| [deleted]
| voakbasda wrote:
| Did they identify the owner of the package?
|
| Call me cynical, but I can easily imagine the scenario where the
| authorities themselves drop off a suspicious package as pretext
| to do a search, so they do not need to bother with that pesky
| problem of obtaining a warrant. Numerous agencies have been
| documented using this sort of dishonest and dubious tactics, so I
| do not think that possibility could be dismissed at the start.
|
| At this point, I would trust some random unattended package more
| than I would trust the government to act with integrity. And that
| just makes me hang my head in deep sadness and shame for this
| country.
| red-iron-pine wrote:
| why are you assuming cops / government?
|
| it's def con, you don't bring a cell without doing all of the
| most recent security updates cuz someone there may get into it.
| plenty of pranker, hacker, cracker types there, and not crazy
| to think they could get up to mischief with a bomb scare too.
| throwawaylinux wrote:
| > Last night we were asked to evacuate the building due to a
| report of a suspicious package. Local police and fire
| departments conducted a thorough investigation and ultimately
| determined that the package was safe. They also conducted
| additional sweeps of the building as a precaution before
| allowing our team to return and prepare for today's con.
|
| I did wonder why they would "conduct additional sweeps" if it
| was determined that the package was safe. What are the usual
| precautions that police and fire take for conference venues in
| which no dangerous packages have been found?
| sidfthec wrote:
| Could have just been someone going around with a bomb
| sniffing dog while they were assessing the package. I'm
| guessing they weren't searching everyone's hotel rooms
| afterwards...
| sterlind wrote:
| If package had explosive residue but was not a bomb, then:
|
| 1) package is safe, AND
|
| 2) either: a) package had residue for harmless reasons, OR b)
| package was used to transport bomb.
|
| conducting additional sweeps rules out case b.
| some_random wrote:
| CYA and keeping up security theater
| obmelvin wrote:
| As I mentioned above, the additional sweeps should really be
| considered in the context of the previous Vegas shooting. The
| venue and police have every reason to be cautious.
| throwawaylinux wrote:
| Well that's what I was wondering about. Do police and fire
| there conduct sweeps of buildings preparing for large
| conferences as a routine matter? If so then fine, it just
| didn't exactly sound like it from that statement.
| luxuryballs wrote:
| shoot we forgot to do the security sweep, better send the
| suspicious package!
| hanniabu wrote:
| While unlikely, it's not outlandish to think there could be a
| decoy package
| obmelvin wrote:
| After the shooting at the country music event in Vegas, there
| is absolutely no doubt that every venue there takes every
| suspicion very seriously. The fact that they did multiple
| sweeps etc is not remotely suspicious. It just indicates that
| they are worried about missing a bomb and then it later going
| off.
| bell-cot wrote:
| I suspect this event have loomed larger in Vegas security
| staff minds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey%27s_Resort_
| Hotel_bombin...
| obmelvin wrote:
| That's fair, but I mostly bring up the more recent shooting
| because of the court cases regarding the venues missing
| clues and attempts to hold them liable
| gwill wrote:
| not aware of them identifying the owner but the "authorities"
| on site were caesar's security and they did the sweeps w dogs.
| i don't see caesar's clearing out their own venue during a
| convention because they "wanted to do a search". it was also
| during party hours when there are far fewer people and bags.
| voakbasda wrote:
| It would be trivial for the agent planting the package to
| then report it to the venue in order to precipitate the
| authorities being called.
|
| I'm not claiming that this is what happened, but it's too
| easy to imagine this scenario being part of some three letter
| agency's playbook.
| sidfthec wrote:
| > Numerous agencies have been documented using this sort of
| dishonest and dubious tactics, so I do not think that
| possibility could be dismissed at the start.
|
| The wording of this is similar to conspiracy theorists that
| spout off lots of theories with little to no evidence or logic.
|
| 1. Is there any evidence that the "local police and fire
| department" were searching anything that would normally require
| a warrant, besides the suspicious package? Surely Caesers would
| give a good amount of access without the charade if the police
| said they suspected something, and be able to do the search in
| a quieter way (which would mean it's less likely to tip off
| anyone who they'd be looking for).
|
| 2. Is there evidence of agencies (in this case, local Las Vegas
| FD and PD) planting fake bombs in the past to avoid getting a
| warrant?
|
| You should need a lot more evidence to think that it was
| planted by police. So many more scenarios are more likely.
| tracker1 wrote:
| Same goes for a bomb though... it's Vegas, far more likely
| the owner of the bag was drunk, stoned and or otherwise
| distracted and forgot it than it being a bomb.
| hk1337 wrote:
| It's probably pretty typical for "The Register" but the caption,
| "Gravy SEALs maybe, but they made a swatting call impossible" on
| the picture seems inappropriate for a journalism post.
| monocasa wrote:
| Apparently the con-goers were calling them gravy seals.
| ImPostingOnHN wrote:
| it seems appropriate for heavily armed and armored mall-cops
| (i.e., normal private citizens with no police powers)
| cosplaying in gravy-colored military gear
| sokoloff wrote:
| I always assumed that "US Gravy Seals" was a shot at the BMI
| of the people engaged in the activity rather than at the
| color of their uniforms.
|
| "US Gravy Seals, Meal Team Six" (not in this article, but
| elsewhere on the 'net) suggests the same.
| ImPostingOnHN wrote:
| it's more a function of them thinking that they are special
| forces while being anything but, almost a stolen valor
| thing
|
| if they just wore a normal uniform like any other normal
| private store employee, you'd never hear the term applied
| to them, regardless of weight
|
| the fact that they chose gravy color for their cosplay is
| just icing on the cake :)
| bdcravens wrote:
| Looking at the photo, it seems an appropriate use of that meme,
| and The Register's schtick has long been disregarding
| journalistic appropriateness (as a matter of fact, they are way
| tamer these days than they used to be)
| xg15 wrote:
| I guess, their defcon was elevated.
| asynchronous wrote:
| Was there for this. K9 teams swept the forum and they closed the
| parties down early (around 11pm).
|
| Rumor was someone had a panic attack and in their state reported
| a package as "suspicious" forcing the venue to take proper
| precautions.
|
| We pretty much all laughed about it because literally everything
| at defcon is suspicious.
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(page generated 2023-08-14 23:02 UTC)