Indicators of Compromise: An open letter to certain Does in the infosec community.

[maradydd]

If you are one of the people that Georgia Weidman refers to here:

Conference staff was originally very supportive. But then they went to hear his side of the story and they suddenly wouldn’t even look at me. I realize it’s a complicated situation, but what I hit myself in the eye? I asked an organizer point blank if he believed me, and he said he

Comments

[krfsm]

rather, if you accept that Gont committed crimes of property, one of which is probably a federal felony, why would you just handwave a thing like that away?

Because to acknowledge it means one would have to act in a confrontative way? And bring in the cops, and other uncomfortable stuff? I don't know, people are sometimes extremely reluctant about that kind of thing. Especially if the perpetrator is seen as "one of us". (Even more especially if the victim "isn't really one of us", through factors such as being a woman in a techy, male-dominated environment.)

[anaisdjuna]

This too. :-(

[anaisdjuna]

Because inside, they know good & goddamn well she was raped. They don't want to have to deal with the fact that women are not objects & party favors & the surrounding crimes make it that much harder to prop up their denial, so they'll just push their denial to the grotesque. No surprise at all in a country like Poland where women are sex trafficked like water. What's one little privileged American tech princess in their eyes.

My heart goes out to Georgia. I'm a former rape crisis counselor, if she wants someone to talk to or needs anything, please pass on my contact info. I'm so sorry for all the ways she was denied her rightful humanity in these events.

[morbid_curious]

This kind of shit is the very opposite of professional behaviour, let alone security professional behaviour. It makes me furious.

[jrtom]

...wow. Seriously, what the hell.

I am trying to imagine what Gont could possibly have said to the conference staff that would have given them significant cause to doubt as to the basic outline of things. Unless Georgia has a history of seriously injuring other people in a drunken haze--and I have no reason to believe that this is the case--how did he explain away her injuries and his? Especially given the footage of him entering (and, one presumes, exiting) her room?

For that matter, the fact that B has hard evidence to support it, and that Gont denied B, certainly that gives _some_ reason to doubt his word regarding A.

Maybe the conference staff didn't have access to all this information at the time she spoke to them. But this is outrageous.

[attutle]

"why would you just handwave a thing like that away?"

I don't have many details, but my guess is cognitive dissonance.

As the things piled up, it became increasingly uncomfortable and difficult to acknowledge the magnitude of their collective mistakes, but that discomfort was avoided as long as they all continue to agree that there wasn't really any serious problem. Especially since this built up in stages where there was initially some question, then more and more evidence.

Additionally: herd behavior, bandwagon effect, etc.

[attutle]

Also, Why Don’t Cops Believe Rape Victims?