Hacker News is hosting a hackathon on Thursday, August 12th, called “Sight & Sound: A Conversation With the Director of Security of the UES,” to discuss the new event’s challenges and what to expect from the event.
In the event, attendees will be invited to “see, hear, and participate in a live-streamed conversation on security and privacy, a panel discussion with the Director, and an interactive presentation from the security team that covers the topic of security.”
The event, which is also taking place on the same day as the NSA’s hackathon, has been organized by the Center for Information Security at Carnegie Mellon University and the Cyber Security Research Lab at The University of Washington.
The event is being sponsored by Sensesight, a new, private, and nonprofit security firm that is attempting to address some of the problems with current state of the art surveillance technology.
While the event is aimed at the public, the event’s organizers are also encouraging those who would prefer not to attend to use a virtual private network (VPN) to circumvent the surveillance that is currently occurring, with a number of participants in attendance who have been granted anonymity for security reasons.
The hackathon is being hosted at the University of Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Mellon Cyber Security Lab, and the UEDT Center for Cyber and Information Security.
The event will be livestreamed via Sensesense’s official website, and will feature a number live events, including a presentation by Sights and Sound co-director, and a Q&A session with the event director, both of whom have not been announced.
The goal of the event isn’t just to create a safe space for people to gather, but to provide an opportunity for the attendees to “discuss the current state-of-the-art tools and technologies used in the world today,” said Sights Director of Research and Development David Cappuccio.
“There are a lot of things we can learn from this event, but we will also share how we are working to improve our security tools.”
The event is sponsored by the University at Buffalo, Carnegie Mellon, the Center on Privacy, and The Cyber Security Training Lab.
For more information on the event or to reserve your spot, click here.
For more information, see the full list of participating companies, including the names of those companies and the event directors, at the Sensesights website.