📚 Chris Hadnagy vs. DEF CON lawsuit DISMISSED

Update:
- Judge Beetlestone in PA dismissed the lawsuit without pre-trial discovery, ruling that it lacked personal jurisdiction.
- Because the case was dismissed without prejudice, Mr. Hadnagy can refile and attempt to litigate in another venue.

Additional context:
During our investigation we spoke directly with Mr. Hadnagy about claims of his violations of our Code of Conduct. He confirmed his behavior, and agreed to stop. Unfortunately, the behavior did not stop.

Before DEF CON finalized our response, Mr. Hadnagy informed us that his Social Engineering Village would not be returning to DEF CON.

Our investigation also revealed that DEF CON is not the only security conference to receive complaints about Mr. Hadnagy’s behavior. For example, Black Hat received complaints, conducted their own investigation and removed Mr. Hadnagy from their Review Board.

We thank the DEF CON community for supporting our efforts to uphold our Code of Conduct.

All the court documents are available here:
https://lnkd.in/gsugqMyV

And as always, our code of conduct and transparency report are here:
https://defcon.org/html/links/dc-code-of-conduct.html
https://defcon.org/html/links/dc-transparency.html