Public Statement by Fernando Gont

Accessed from http://blog.gont.com.ar/2013/06/lies-nuts-and-quest-for-attention.html on Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Lies, nuts, and the quest for attention
It was brought to my attention a recent flood of Twitter messages containing a number of accusations (ranging from "horrible", to "very horrible") against my person. And apparently it's the *second* flood of Twitter messages (the previous one being about two weeks ago).

The accusations were originated by someone who happened to be a speaker at the same Conference I was a speaker and trainer (CONFidedence 2013) and, for reasons that I didn't and don't understand, has been repeating blatant lies, every time magnifying it a bit more -- which nobody in their right mind could believe.

At the time this issue came up, I assumed that it was a completely out of place reaction product of the ingest of too much alcohol. But when the accusations and drama continued, I honestly had no idea what went and goes through this person's mind.

This world is a complex place, and one should be surprised to find someone with such a mental disorder to come up with such a number of blatant lies. It's sad, frustrating, and annoying... but not surprising.

What I personally think is more of a concern is the reaction of other people upon those lies:

People making their own judgement even without asking for a second opinion.
Others offering to beat a guy up to "make things even".
An organizer of a conference at which I was a speaker and trainer comment that "I would never speak at that conference again".
Others arguing that they should "destroy my career".
(Allegedly) technically-bright people making stupid and primitive comments (ala "let's go and kill him").

... and the list continues.


For a second, think about events that happened in the last decade based on "assumptions", or the kind of anti-humanitarian scenarios this world has experienced simply because some mentally-disordered person came up with a blatant lie that everyone followed with questioning.

I will personally not contribute to the existing drama, since it someone else's game to get attention at any price.

Ironically enough, the people that had access to hotel security video recordings and other sort of information are now also accused for 2not taking action". And the ones with no clues about what really happened, are the ones making statements and comments such as the ones mentioned above.

My participation in the on-line world will continue as always: contributing my best to network security field. But I will certainly start legal actions to everyone that has made accusations that they cannot back. And I personally encourage anyone that has any concrete accusation to make, that they do so with the corresponding legal procedures. That's the best guarantee you can get that proper actions will be taken where/as needed. But, at the same time, it also means that everyone that simply repeats blatant lies "just because you think you're not going to be held responsible for them", gets what they deserve for libeling someone that does not deserve it. As some friend used to say, "you shouldn't be concerned about signing a statement if you are telling the truth" -- but none has done that.

Supporting a known entity (or known "colleague") is one thing. Repeating blatant lies without even checking if there's any truth to them is a completely different thing.

My close friends, people that I respect (and that I know that have been exposed to these lies), and folks that respectfully asked me what this whole issue was about, have received my rather complete version and my thoughts of these accusations. However, there's nothing that can be told to irrational people (that have made the sort of statements that I mentioned above) that will make them change their mind -- that's when a lawyer comes in, so that people are hold responsible for what they do and say.
PUBLICADO POR FERNANDO GONT EN WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2013