Overheard: The great wall of…sheep

A group of reporters from Global Security Mag were kicked out of the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas after stealing password information from another reporter who will remain nameless—we’ll call him “me.” Brian Prince, How eWEEK Got Hacked at Black Hat

Alas, I broke one of the cardinal rules of security and, but for the grace of the Black Hat conference staff, would have had my name added to the infamous Wall of Sheep.

Hackers have the most colorful language. The Wall of Sheep is run by volunteers at the DEFCON security conference. It’s a projection on a wall that lists users at the conference who put their data at risk by running unencrypted information on the conference’s open network. Originally the offender’s names were posted on white paper plates — the wall filled with crinkle-edged paper plates looked like a kindergarten bulletin board of little fluffy sheep and the name stuck.