An open letter to the hacker community concerning Caroline Murgue / Touch Symposium.

Foreword

We recently learned that since at least January 2020 and continuing into the present, a French national by the name of Caroline Murgue [also known as Caroline Mee-Ran Murgue] has misrepresented herself as being closely aligned with three notable hacker groups, specifically: CULT OF THE DEAD COW (cDc), L0pht, and the Chaos Computer Club (CCC). In doing so, she habitually makes fraudulent claims and drags our names into disrepute.

Since the publication of the book Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World in 2019, various people have come forward with spurious claims of cDc membership. We have in the past always handled these situations quietly, without making public statements. But this one is different, due to the scope and nature of the claims, as well as the financial component which is concerned here. But most importantly, we've asked her to stop and she has not.

For years Ms. Murgue has sustained a campaign of lies and exaggeration, portraying herself as a well-connected hacking luminary in order to garner unearned prestige in the community. She claims to have both personal and professional relationships not only with the cDc organization as a whole, but also with several of its individual members.

For the record: Caroline Murgue is not — nor has she ever been — a member of cDc. Neither does she possess a special relationship of any kind with cDc. Likewise, she never had a connection with the L0pht hackerspace, which closed its doors in the year 2000. [She was, quite likely, a teenager living in France at the time.] And, as far as we've been able to ascertain, she is not a member of the CCC. [After checking with someone there, they did not find a Chaosnummer assigned to her name.]

Ms. Murgue has spread these falsehoods far and wide — across her various social media accounts: Instagram, Twitter, Mastodon, Soundcloud, TikTok, career sites LinkedIn and The-Dots, and potentially others as well.

In short: Caroline Murgue’s actions have been consistent with someone attempting to

1. accumulate clout for their very active influencer persona adjacent to the hacker scene; and
2. raise money for their organization.

Leeching cred is unsavory under any circumstances, but it crosses an unambiguous line when there's also a financial motive at play.

If that weren't enough, she also has a history of issuing antagonistic statements which embroil CULT OF THE DEAD COW.

Worst of all, she has made attempts to slip into people's social networks by posing as cDc member Lady Carolin. This conduct has affected some of our friends and business colleagues.

Ms. Murgue's reprehensible behavior, despite her having absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with our group, reflects badly on us all.

We twice reached out to Ms. Murgue privately, urging her to expunge the offending material. We hoped that she would remove the falsehoods and apologize. Instead she made only a token effort, by removing just a small fraction of her barefaced lies.

Now, seeing as things still remain unresolved, we feel that the only responsible course of action is to make the matter public.

CULT OF THE DEAD COW
November 18, 2022

Who is Caroline Murgue?

Caroline Murgue is a French person who runs the small Brooklyn-based charitable nonprofit Moshi Inc., which claims to be "dedicated to empower children and teenagers with critical and creative thinking."

She owns the Twitter account @Touch_Symposium, and owned the deleted Twitter account @moshi_philo. She also owns the website touch-symposium.org, and either owns or owned its predecessor: touchsymposium.org. She also owns the TikTok account @touchsymposium, the Mastodon.art account @touchsymposium, and the Instagram account @bibimstudio.

What has Caroline been up to?

Pretending to be in the cDc.

“Touch Symposium is the Hackrrr Grrrl Eclectic Chapter of the L0PHT / Cult of the Dead Cow, the original Hacking Supergroup, the oldest American hacking collective of all time, that might just save the world.”

For the record:

• Caroline Murgue is not, and has never been, a member of cDc or of L0pht.
• She has no special relationship with anyone in cDc or L0pht.
• She is not authorized to speak, or issue any statements, on our behalf.

It appears that Caroline probably began to claim that she belonged to the cDc sometime in 2019, but the proof goes back to January 2020.

Making statements on behalf of cDc.

In service of appearing to belong, Ms. Murgue acted like an unofficial mouthpiece with inside knowledge. She made authoritative-sounding pronouncements with a lot of confidence but absolutely no basis in fact.

Inflating her resume.

Ms. Murgue puffed up her resume with fake claims of working with cDc. This was found on two separate job-seeking sites: LinkedIn and The-Dots. On LinkedIn she claimed to have been our "Creative Director" for more than 9 years, and also on the other site to have worked for us in some kind of unspecified capacity.

Advertising her conference using bogus endorsements.

Although cDc member Count Zero appeared remotely at the December 2020 Touch Symposium conference, since then there has been absolutely no participation at all by The Cult of the Dead Cow.

This fact did not stop Ms. Murgue from blanketing her social media accounts with posts declaring cDc's supposed involvement with the Touch Symposium conference in October 2022 and the upcoming one scheduled for October 2023. As we said, these are all complete fabrications.

Also, during the run-up to the October 2022 event, Ms. Murgue repeatedly solicited cash donations on Twitter (and other social media platforms) using the names and likenesses of cDc members Mudge, DilDog, and Oxblood Ruffin. None of them gave permission for her to do this, and were indeed unaware that it was occurring at all.

During the October 2022 Touch Symposium conference, cDc and L0pht logos appeared on the interstitial slides alongside the link for cash donations:

Despite the fact that none of us has any involvement with the October 2023 Touch Symposium, Ms. Murgue continues relentlessly to promote her upcoming conference using the names and likenesses of cDc members.

What's the problem?

Her online hostility.

The longer that these lies go unchallenged, the more legitimacy she gains. Which is problematic because her history shows that she will in all likelihood persist in issuing confrontational statements and sowing discord, seemingly under the aegis of the cDc.

Deceptive fundraising.

Another thing is that she has been soliciting donations to her 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, by using the likenesses of and fabricated donations by prominent cDc members. This has been happening on Twitter and Mastodon.

In reality, neither Mudge, nor Oxblood, nor DilDog, nor Deth Veggie ever had any dealings with Caroline Murgue or her conference. Nevertheless in 2022, a fictional Mudge on the real moshi-philo.org website went so far as to enthusiastically urge people to contribute, pledging US$1,420 in imaginary matching money for donations made during the one-day conference. It truly boggles the mind, how brazen this is.

We're not legal experts but this smells like prima facie fraud, for two inescapable reasons:

1. Mudge is not involved with the group.
2. Therefore, there are no matching funds from Mudge.

None of us have made any donations, nor made public appeals for others to follow suit. This is all a ruse, and should be investigated by the proper authorities.

One such authority might be the IRS, since it appears that Ms. Murgue may have run afoul of the US Internal Revenue Code by making public written statements on behalf of the organization in opposition to a candidate for public office. [According to a web search, Moshi Inc. (EIN 38-4022922) was granted 501(c)(3) tax exempt status in July 2018.] Once again, CULT OF THE DEAD COW have had nothing to do with this group's finances or appeals for donations; it was all contrived by Ms. Murgue.

How did we respond to all of this?

Note that we didn't discover what was happening until October 2022, which meant that things had been going on for almost three years. When we became aware of the enormity of the situation, we promptly contacted Ms. Murgue.

Twice we issued formal requests that Ms. Murgue stop pretending to have cDc connections, and remove that fraudulent content. [Our email correspondence appears in the appendix.]

How did she respond to us?

She told us essentially nothing, and did essentially nothing. As an example, she updated the Touch Symposium Team page on November 10 to remove the "Board of Creativity" (which had been populated entirely by unwitting persons such as Oxblood), but kept the sham "Board of Trustees" (which consists entirely of Mudge and Dave Aitel).

And of course she took down none of the offending tweets. In fact, apparently in response to our November 7 email she updated the @Touch_Symposium Twitter profile, but she did not remove the mentions of L0pht or cDc. Instead she merely added CCC to the list, as if to flaunt her ability to update the text.

From our standpoint this appears to be a declaration that she has chosen to double down on her deceptions. Later she made a handful of halfhearted efforts at remediation, but nothing significant.

Frankly, we found her choices baffling. But the situation is what it is.

Conclusion

As there seems to be no possible resolution to the current state of affairs, we feel that the only rational thing to do is to lay bare the whole affair to the community. Hopefully, people will come to recognize Ms. Murgue as having nothing to do with our organization, just as she has nothing to do with L0pht.

This could have – should have – gone differently, but Ms. Murgue unfortunately would not listen to reason. She refused to do the right thing, and so here we are.

Appendix

These two email exchanges constitute the entirety of our communications with Ms. Murgue as of this writing.

November 3

From: <Medus4>
Date: Thu, Nov 3, 2022 at 5:38 PM
Subject: Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc)
To: <Caroline Murgue>

Hello, Caroline.

I am writing to you on behalf of cDc.

We recently learned that since at least January 2020 and continuing into the present, you have been representing yourself as being connected to The Cult of the Dead Cow. Sometimes you claim to be a member. And you have even issued some official-sounding statements purportedly from us.

In addition to your organization's website at moshi-philo.org, this has been happening across various social media platforms: Instagram, Twitter, Mastodon, LinkedIn, The-Dots, and likely others as well.

As you know, you are not -- nor have you ever been -- a member of cDc. Neither do you possess a special relationship of any kind with us. Likewise, you have no authority to issue statements on our behalf.

We must therefore insist that you cease this at once.

1. Immediately remove all past mentions of The Cult of the Dead Cow on your social media sites, and any other such user accounts you own or control. Delete any tweets, toots, or posts which either refer or allude to The Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc). This includes any artwork or images involving our ASCII cow skull logo.

2. Remove the fictitious endorsements from Mudge, which you have been using to solicit monetary donations for your 501(c)(3), Moshi Inc. As we are sure you know, the rules around non-profit fundraising are strict, and using false information to solicit donations is fraud.

3. Stop claiming membership or affiliation with cDc, or with any of our members. This includes any speeches or presentations you give.

4. Immediately stop using cDc members' images, names, or handles in any social media posts and in advertisements for events or Moshi. For a full list of our members, you can visit <https://cultdeadcow.com/members.html>

This includes retired members as well. We are aware of you claiming to be Lady Carolin, and that is unacceptable. Do not continue this behavior.

We would take no joy in going public with this information, so you have 72 hours to make the above corrective actions.

The herd has spoken.

-medus4

Twitter- @medus4_cdc

From: <Caroline Murgue>
Date: Thu, Nov 3, 2022 at 7:53 PM
Subject: Re: Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc)
To: <Medus4>

Hello, Medus4

I don't know who you are and who you pretend to be.

I'm sorry of your misreading, because the only thing you know is you know nothing.

Take care

Caroline

November 7

From: <Reid Fleming>
Date: Mon, Nov 7, 2022 at 12:15 PM
Subject: Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc)
To: <Caroline Murgue>

Hello, Caroline.

I am Reid Fleming and I am writing to you on behalf of cDc.

You know who I am, because mine (@CdcReid) is among the six cDc accounts you follow on Twitter, and you have tweeted at me in the past. My DMs are open specifically for the limited purpose of authenticating this message.

From what we can tell, it seems that you have made no effort at all to address the problem we outlined. Everything we asked you to remove is still up on your sites: moshi-philo.org, Instagram, Twitter, Mastodon, etc.

Other than your brief response to Medus4's November 3rd email, you made no attempts to contact us for more time or further clarification.

Unless you take immediate steps to resolve this situation, we will be forced to raise this matter in a public forum.

Again, the herd has spoken.

-- Reid Fleming, cDc

P.S. For the record, the six accounts:

@adamjodonnell
@CdcReid
@DethVeggie
@dotMudge
@OxbloodRuffin
@Pathfinder

From: <Caroline Murgue>
Date: Mon, Nov 7, 2022 at 12:22 PM
Subject: Re: Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc)
To: <Reid Fleming>

Hello, Reid

I don't know who you are and who you pretend to be.

I'm sorry of your misreading. The only thing you know is you know nothing.

Take care

Caroline

Fair Use notice

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last updated: 11 December 2022