Really? Even at events like EMF? I'd be really surprised.
But yeah my view of the hacker scene is very much tailored by these events. I wouldn't even go to something like Black Hat - way too corporate. Even though I work in "cyber" myself.
I spoke at the 2nd Black Hat and was rewarded with a spot on Jeff Moss's hotel room couch because he forgot to obtain a hotel room for me; the firm I cofounded in 2005 (Matasano Security) was acquired by NCC Group, the largest "white hat" firm in the UK. I'd just say: "white hat" is a much more diverse community than most HN commenters intuitions about security people would indicate.
There were a lot of white hat people that were made during Snowden --- at Snowden. Glem Greenwald didn't help matters much.
(Obviously also a lot of white hat people pissed for the opposite reason! I'm only saying it's a diverse group.)
True, I understand, I just go by my own experience. I'm more aligned with the defcon style, privacy activists, breaking DRM, reverse engineering of products to make them do things they weren't designed for etc than the bug hunting or more corporate community which is more at black hat (as far as I've heard, I've never been to either). Also because I'm much more maker than "hacker".
It was wrong to assume these worlds are aligned in opinion.
But yeah my view of the hacker scene is very much tailored by these events. I wouldn't even go to something like Black Hat - way too corporate. Even though I work in "cyber" myself.