Undercover Reporter Spotted @ DEF CON 2007

5 Comments August 6, 2007 1502 Views

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If you don’t know what DEF CON is, it’s the world’s largest annual hacker convention, held every year in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Undercover reporter Michelle Madigan, who also happens to be an associate producer for NBC Dateline, tried to sneak in to DEF CON 2007 with a hidden pin-hole camera. She was trying to get hackers to confess to felonies they’ve committed and use it for a piece entitled “Hiring Hackers”. Unfortunately for Madigan, the organizers of the event was informed about her presence. Organizers approached her and asked if she wanted official press credentials to cover the event which she declined. One of the organizers went up stage and announced about a game called “spot the undercover reporter game”. When this happened, the undercover reporter bolted out of the building with over a hundred DEF CON attendees and reporters right behind her videotaping and taking photographs of her.

Check out the video below as it shows what happened starting from the announcement of the “spot the undercover reporter game” until she gets into her car.

Hackers, Federal agents and the press have mutual respect for each other and interact peacefully at DEF CON. Press people who want to cover the event are free to take photos and videos as long as they get the press badge and official press credentials. We can see that Madigan’s purpose was to make it more controversial by making it an undercover report using a hidden camera.

Via ZDNet