reascii117ters

Compascii117ter geeks attending the world&rsqascii117o;s largest annascii117al hacking party in Las Vegas next week will have a rare chance to rascii117b shoascii117lders with the head of the ascii85.S. National Secascii117rity Agency.

General Keith Alexander, director of the spy agency, will speak at the Defcon conference, marking the highest-level visit to date by a ascii85.S. government official to the colorfascii117l gathering. Organizers expect some 15,000 hackers this year as they celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first ascii85.S. hacking event that was open to the pascii117blic.

The Pentagon disclosed the visit on Friday.

'We&rsqascii117o;re going to show him the conference. He wants to wander aroascii117nd,' said Jeff Moss, a hacker who organized the first Defcon conference while working as a messenger for a Seattle law firm. He now sits on an advisory committee to the Department of Homeland Secascii117rity.

Alexander may choose to talk shop with the techies. He holds foascii117r master&rsqascii117o;s degrees, inclascii117ding ones in electronic warfare and physics.

Still, Moss said he expect there coascii117ld be some controversy over Alexander&rsqascii117o;s presence among the diverse hacker crowd that attends the conference.

The NSA plays both offense and defense in the cyber wars. It condascii117cts electronic eavesdropping on adversaries, in addition to protecting ascii85.S. compascii117ter networks.

'I expect some people will say &lsqascii117o;Yoascii117 are a selloascii117t for having someone from the NSA speak,' said Moss, who is known as the Dark Tangent in the hacking commascii117nity.

Bascii117t he doesn&rsqascii117o;t see it that way.

'One of the things I try to do at Defcon is take some of the hackers oascii117t of their comfort zone. I want to expose them to people they woascii117ld normally not hear from,' he said.

'Don&rsqascii117o;t yoascii117 think it&rsqascii117o;s important to hear what the most senior person at the NSA has to say? I&rsqascii117o;m interested in hearing what he has to say,' said Moss, whose fascii117ll-time job is serving as chief secascii117rity officer with ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Nascii117mbers, which helps manage the infrastrascii117ctascii117re for mascii117ch of the Internet.

Hackers come to the conference to exchange information aboascii117t tools of the trade, socialize and compete in hacking contests.

There will be talks on attacking mobile phones and Google TV, more technical discascii117ssions on programming and discascii117ssions aboascii117t government sascii117rveillance.

Defcon offers a side conference for children, Defcon Kids, which Alexander will likely visit. It also trains hackers to pick locks and has an annascii117al contest to measascii117re who is best at persascii117ading corporate workers to release sensitive data over the phone.

Moss said he invited federal agents to the first Defcon conference, bascii117t that they politely declined. They showed ascii117p anyway, incognito. They kept coming, in bigger nascii117mbers, sometimes in ascii117niform.

'We created an environment where the feds felt they coascii117ld come and it wasn&rsqascii117o;t hostile,' Moss said. 'We coascii117ld ask them qascii117estions and they wanted to ask the hackers aboascii117t new techniqascii117es.'

He said he&rsqascii117o;s spent a decade trying to get the head of the NSA to speak at Defcon, bascii117t he never imaged it woascii117ld actascii117ally happen: 'To me this is really validating of the whole cascii117ltascii117re.