Black Hat USA 2013 - Spy-Jacking the Booters

Surprised no one has linked this back-and-forth discussion at Blackhat 2013 between cybercrime investigative reporter Brian Krebs and CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince regarding CloudFlare's hosting of "booters"/DDOS marketing sites. I will put a bit of the conversation here, but please do listen to it in context. ▶ this video (quoting CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince below, aka eastdakota on HN link ) 45:52 "Where would you draw the line?" 47:25 "It's really tricky when private organizations act as law enforcement" 47:33 "We try to follow what is due process" 47:56 smart-ass/sick burn re: Krebs's journalism 48:46 "We comply with any court order that we receive" (both takedowns and to not take things down) "unless we feel that it's truly abusive in these cases we [interrupted/unintelligible, maybe: would] ..." 49:00 "There have been some hacking-related sites that we have been asked to take down" source: HN user kefka link

My impression was the crowd's response was more of a "sick burn" (Krebs himself smiles and nods in this manner) rather than booing, shouts of disbelief and guffawing (and clapping) . If anyone is seriously considering avoiding CloudFlare based on your summary of the interaction, I encourage them to view the video for themselves. I personally appreciate the willingness to be true to oneself with a quick-witted reply rather than 100% PR-safe professionalism all the time. However, I don't mean to imply that your impression somehow should change or that you should change your decision! My world would be so much nicer if I could just avoid working with people that rubbed me the wrong way. ▶ this video

The exchange starts at ▶ this video I'm not sure I see this from your perspective; multiple people in the crowd clap after your point "C", and much more clapping is heard when he sits down. If I were forced to classify the behavior (edit:specifically at 48:08) I would choose "smartass". The entire discussion is interesting in light of what happened recently with Uber/Kalanick.

1. CEO is an ass. 2. Supports Booters, script kiddies, and pay-to-play blackhat hackers 3. Fucks over Tor any chance they can get. -------------------------------------------- Proof for said allegations: [Youtube video] ▶ this video A: He continually berates because "he called and Brian Krebs never responded" B: Cloudflare CEO states that the booters (ddos pay-as-you-go sites protected by cloudflare) don't even pay, or pay with stolen credit cards. And admits is "just a disaster". C: Direct insult towards Krebs onstage "Well, who needs to actually ask questions as a journalist?" 48:08 [/Youtube Video] link look for user:eastdakota page text:"Yes, you can see Brian's critique of us here:"

Oh, he's a horrible person anyways, let alone the misleading and very damaging "help" of signalling to users there's no security problem. That above is a pretty harsh thing to allege. So here's proof, from his own mouth. First, he continually berates because "he called and Brian Krebs never responded".. Well, he invited him on stage of a BlackHat conference. Secondly, the cloudflare CEO states that the booters (ddos pay-as-you-go sites protected by cloudflare) don't even pay, or pay with stolen credit cards. And admits is "just a disaster". Thridly, a direct insult towards Krebs onstage "Well, who needs to actually ask questions as a journalist?" 48:08 ... No. Just no. Absolutely not. And if I can find the post, Matthew Prince on here posted this video as a defence against a Tor dispute. Somehow, he thinks it's somehow enlightened and upright. My opinion, I don't believe so at all. ▶ this video Edit: Further citation: link look for user:eastdakota page text:"Yes, you can see Brian's critique of us here:"

eastdakota (CEO of cloudflare) posted this: ____________________________________________ Yes, you can see Brian's critique of us here: ▶ this video Skip to minute 19:35. Then skip to the Q&A at minute 45:00 to hear my response. ____________________________________________ He repeatedly badgers Krebs on "why didnt you respond to my emails to meet", to the point they nervously laugh/cough on stage. "Who needs to actually ask questions, as a journalist?", said eastdakota ( ▶ this video ). This was what got me. I expect better composure from a CEO than childish and churlish jabs. (edits were purely for formatting and separating eastdakota's writing from mine.

Yes, you can see Brian's critique of us here: ▶ this video Skip to minute 19:35. Then skip to the Q&A at minute 45:00 to hear my response.