Novel new use of PGP keysigning sessions

[Ian BROWN]

Max Vision: FBI pawn?
by Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus.com
May 8, 2001 2:48 PM PT

Federal officials used threats and a false promise of leniency to lure
computer security researcher and admitted cyber intruder Max Butler into
becoming an undercover FBI informant, according to a defense motion filed in
the case Tuesday.

It was only when Butler balked at covertly recording a friend and colleague,
and instead sought advice from an attorney, that the government threw the
book at him, the motion charges. "The government as much as promised him he
would receive consideration," says defense attorney Jennifer Granick. "At
least until he hired an attorney..."

[N]ear the end of July they summoned "Equalizer" to a meeting in the FBI
offices high above San Francisco's Golden Gate Boulevard.

Butler's new mission: Attend the DEFCON hacker convention at the Plaza Hotel
and Casino in Las Vegas -- the largest annual gathering of security experts,
hackers and cybercops in the world. "There, he was to collect PGP encryption
keys from conference attendees and try to match people's real names with
their hacker identities and with the keys," reads the motion...

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/203