Kurt Opsahl
Kurt Opsahl is the Associate General Counsel for Cybersecurity and Civil Liberties Policy for the Filecoin Foundation. Opsahl has been working for close to 30 years on technology law and policy, representing Internet startups in the dot-com boom, protecting digital rights at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and now focusing on protecting the decentralized web. Opsahl volunteers as the President of the Security Research Legal Defense Fund, Special Counsel for EFF, and on the board of the Financial Privacy Foundation. Formerly, Opsahl was the Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel of the EFF, and litigated key cases, protecting civil liberties online. Opsahl was also the lead attorney defending security researchers at EFF;s Coders' Rights Project, and continues to assist EFF with that work as Special Counsel. From 2014 -22, Opsahl served on the USENIX Board of Directors, and a member of the CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee’s Technical Advisory Council from 2023-24.
Session
Home invasions and physical attacks to get crypto transfers are all too common, and have led to grim situations. With all the factors, passphrase and biometrics in the world, people remain susceptible to the rubber hose. This panel will discuss theories and practices for defending against a rubber hose attack, through deterrence, defenses and mitigations. We will start with the assumption that the goal is to preserve life and limb, and preventing or reversing token transfer is secondary, but how to get there, and be reasonably confident that it will not backfire, is hard.