Defamation Lawsuit Against Def Con Cybersecurity Conference Dismissed
A short excerpt from today’s long decision by Magistrate Judge Brian Tsuchida in Hadnagy v. Moss (W.D. Wash.):
This case involves a defamation claim brought by Plaintiff, a past participant of the Def Con annual cybersecurity and hacking conference, against Defendant, the Def Con conference organizer. Plaintiff Hadnagy hosted a social-engineering village called SEVillage at the Def Con conference. Def Con’s Code of Conduct prohibits “harassment,” which includes “deliberate intimidation and targeting individuals in a manner that makes them feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, or afraid” and Def Con reserves the right to expel participants for harassment. Def Con permanently bans “repeat offenders and those who commit more egregious offenses.”
Based on a report of retaliation by Hadnagy made by a former employee and a Zoom call in which others complained of Hadnagy’s conduct, Def Con banned Hadnagy from its conferences and on February 9, 2022, issued the following “Transparency Statement”:
We received multiple CoC [Code of Conduct] violation reports about a DEF CON village leader, Chris Hadnagy of the SE Village. After conversations with the reporting parties and Chris, we are confident that the severity of the transgressions merits a ban from Def Con.
Hadnagy alleges in his lawsuit that this statement led to wide-spread speculation the transgressions were sexual in nature.
On July 28, 2022, Def Con posted another Transparency Report clarifying the significance of the lifetime ban by stating: “[i]n the case of the most troubling offenses or those who we feel may represent on ongoing risk to the community, we take the extra step of naming them publicly” so as not “to provide cover for these individuals to quietly find new and unsuspecting victims elsewhere.” On January 13, 2023, Def Con posted the following “Transparency Update:” During our investigation we spoke direc
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