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Hacker Conference Interrupted By Arrest
David Utter
Staff Writer
2006-07-24
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The FBI executed an arrest warrant at a New York City hotel, where the Hackers on Planet Earth conference was taking place, and led off one man before his scheduled presentation began.
 | | Hacker Conference Interrupted By Arrest |  |
Details about the arrest of Pallorium Inc owner Steve Rambam should be available later on Monday, after his appearance in US District Court in New York. Washington Post blogger Brian Krebs noted the Saturday arrest took place just before Rambam and other speakers were to discuss the issue of online privacy.
Four FBI agents made the arrest at HOPE 6 without incident, according to attendees cited in the post. They removed Rambam and his computer equipment from the hotel, and rumors quickly spread that his presentation contained sensitive information retrieved while researching his report.
The presentation would have illustrated how Rambam located some 500 pages of information on a HOPE conference attendee who volunteered to be the subject of the investigation. Rambam apparently located that information in under five hours, using public and private databases.
Rick Dakan acted as the volunteer, and commented about that in the post:
"All I had given him was my e-mail and name. He knew everywhere I'd lived, every car I had driven, and even someone else in Alabama who was using my Social Security number since 1983," said Dakan, who said he is attending this conference for a book he is working on about hacker conferences. "He found all my friends, pictures of friends, knew about my brother's criminal history."
Speculation that Rambam had uncovered information about someone in the US Marshal's witness protection program quickly spread, but that has not been substantiated and cannot be confirmed until the hearing in New York today.
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Tags: HOPE Conference, Steve Rambam
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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