At last year's Black Hat, Cisco Systems Inc. tried to stop researcher Michael Lynn from speaking about a vulnerability that he said could let hackers virtually shut down the Internet.

Cisco managed to get pages documenting the flaw torn out of all 2,000 conference binders, but ultimately the biggest maker of Internet routing and switching equipment was unable to squelch Lynn's talk.

Isn't it nice to be mentioned alongside purple dye in swimming pools, the "wall of sheep", pouring cement into toilets, stealing payphones, and wiretapping ATMs?

Hacker Pranks at Defcon and Black Hat in Las Vegas Emphasize Computer Security