Time to go through the newest @defcon files from @FBI. The goal with this is to eventually construct as clear a picture as we can of FBI's perception of the conference over the years. Before we get to the newest stuff, let's review what we got last time.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's the first thread where I requested files from '93 - '97. I ended up with files from the early 2000s as well. https://twitter.com/hexadecim8/status/1281205551368753152?s=20

Previously released files from 2000 and 2004 show interest that included investigations of attendees. More than likely in 2004, it was Jeremy Hammond who was the person of interest at DEFCON. https://twitter.com/hexadecim8/status/1281225711525736448?s=20

There were a lot of other fun findings from the first set of documents, and it's definitely worth it to go through and look at my stream of conscious reading of what we got.
This time, I'm going to add a bit more structure. So here begins the new info:

In this release, I ended up getting files dating all the way back to 1994.
I'm not sure why this one didn't make it into the first thread (didn't get released?)
Here's a previously SECRET stamped memo involving @defcon in its early days.

FBI seems to have read about @defcon in a hacker mag. It could have been Phrack, I'll give my reasoning later on. I would very much like to know what lead they feel they got from an ad in the referenced redacted publication.

It's fun to speculate what's under the redaction boxes, but there's not a lot that could fit under the first one. Maybe "phrack" maybe "2600". In any event, FBI did appear to have at least one investigation into someone writing for a hacker mag in '94.

Oh, hai @hopeconf. Welcome to @FBI memos.

Re-reading my reasoning for why it could have been Phrack, it didn't make sense from the beginning because it's been declassified in the last image. Very well could still be 2600.

I get the impression that the actual feds were pretty iffy about spot the fed early on. So much so that they reference it here at the same time they ref @defcon II for the first time.

Looks like @NewYorkFBI has been aware of @hopeconf since day 1. It's not clear to me right now that @fbi was aware of @defcon as early.

In '96 things get weird. @fbi provides me with a 30 page, fully redacted document with very few clues about what's going on.
Stakeholders in keeping this doc classified appear to be @fbi and @usairforce. I guess I'll have to ask them for a copy of it.

In the next document we see some more friends in the flier for @defcon 7.0
@thedarktangent @textfiles

Bad news though, if you offered rides to @defcon II, @FBI had your dox in 1994 and still hangs onto your long since defunct aol and hotmail accounts.

Noid made it to FBI records. Tag your friends.

Basically, if you're anywhere in this old public release for @defcon 7.0, the feds spotted you.
https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-7/defcon-7-pre.html

In '97 @FBI wasn't messing around. They hit 'em up with the teletype memo. Be still my beating heart.

It's interesting to me looking back on these files how @FBI has treated these conferences prior to 2000 as more or less one area of interest. Here, @defcon comes up with @hopeconf again.

In 1999, FBI sends me another interesting file. This one has also been heavily redacted as well, but does mention @defcon 7.0 again, this time alongside CDC and BO2k.
cc: @dildog

I believe I have seen this document before wherein FBI list out all the terrifying capabilities of BO2k. If you haven't seen it and you want to, here's a link to the doc:
https://efoia.fbi.gov/download-file/submission-475ca710486a74f1dbffce08179d741fe64c2eb6/PpmT7ZyyIWXoUZD/E475ca710486a74f1dbffce08179d741fe64c2eb6_Q83756_R357507_D2496222.pdf

Skipping ahead to 2002, @FBI had been tracking "Hacking Trends Hackers On Planet Earth" as an official FBI case and this tickles me.

Still in 2002, FBI tracks Summercon and DEFCON as more or less the same thing as far as the investigative interest is concerned.

The next file comes via 2006, and I have to warn @sedward5 that FBI does not start this file out on the right foot using what looks to me like Comic Sans for their official documentation.
Congress really needs to investigate this gross misconduct IMO.

Imagine having to tell people that you work for "New York FBI Cyber Squad". Ugh.
It just occurred to me that putting in a FOIA every SAC travel request to Las Vegas in July/August would get some interesting info back.

also

Jump ahead one year. Off to a great start here with some of that sweet, sweet macho compensatory FBI "alpha-male" bullshit in an email signature field.

The context of this memo thread is the spread of hacker spaces...as a concept? Apparently with @defcon as the driving force behind it.
It seems that the general idea is that @FBI has seen these spaces as recruitment centers for over a decade.

You heard it here first. Hackerspaces are essentially internet cafes.
This shows a clear pattern of interest from the government to corrupt the purity of what hackerspaces are supposed to be. Nobody is surprised.

Of particular interest to @DragosInc is the FBI interest in ICS vulnerabilities present in this file from 1997 after a vulnerability was shown @defcon

This is just a whole ball of fun. Medeco lock vulnerabilities, card system vulnerabilities which apparently impacted pentagon and white house locks.
cc: @deviantollam

Getting down to the bottom now; 2010 gives me a new lead on a FOIA request by way of an operation name: SLAMMIN JAMMIN has to be the most uncool cryptonym I've ever heard in my life. Ever. EVER.

Oh, okay. I'm sorry. This is much more interesting than I gave it credit for based on the awful name. What happened in 2010 where both Riviera and DEFCON volunteers gave statements to @FBI??

This might have been a computer theft?
Reference to famous @defcon stink bombs in FD-302.

Okay, so it was an armed robbery. The old:
"How do I get in?"
"You need a pass"
*knife pulled out* "here's my pass"
gag. I didn't think people actually delivered cheesy lines like this when they robbed people.

Yo this knife would fuc u up

lol wtf. If you're going to rob somebody at least commit to it.

I know why FBI called it "slammin jammin" now. It was the lamest armed robbery report I've ever seen.

First mention of @BlackHatEvents I've seen in FBI files.

Addendum to Slammin Jammin, it looks like the laptop that was being stolen actually belonged to @generaldynamics. This makes more sense as to why FBI would have been this interested in it. Also raises questions about the nature of the theft in the first place.

I wonder who this girl was.

I'm in love with this whole paragraph, but most of all with the last sentence.

It just keeps getting better and better.

The computer didn't have anything classified on it.