Trolling is something that today has a very negative connotation on the Internet and in the common usage of the word outside of it. However, for better or worse trolling has long enjoyed a close relationship with hacking be it in the area of information security, or simply in technology development. I intend to delve into the definition of a troll, the history of trolling in human culture ( as well as its contributions ), and the techniques that are generally exploited by trolls to realize their intended goals. There will be several past projects that I classify as successful trolls that I will use as object lessons in the practical application of the discussed techniques. Trolls span the gaps between hardware and software projects and at times can carry a variety of "payloads".
Matt 'openfly' Joyce is pretty well known in some circles for having amassed a rather staggeringly large number of klines, olines, ilines, and glines in his many years on irc. In addition to IRC bans, he has been firewalled from Fark, physically barred from attending the HOPE conference, and once introduced in a videocasted Unreal 2004 competitive gaming tournament as "the guy that has been banned from just about every server and forum known to the internet". In addition to this staggering list of anti-accomplishments, Matt has been an invited member of NYC Resistor, a Maker, and an all around great person whom many ladies would love to share their special lady parts with. He also works on open source federal cloud platforms, fonera2.0n images for the ChaosVPN project and occasionally spends time in the company of puppies. In his free time, Matt loves drinking single malt scotch while discussing the markets of the orient, from the confines of exclusive gentlemen's clubs. This talk is dedicated to the memory of Macho Man Randy Savage and Ronald Reagan. @openfly