The senior astronomer for SETI, Seth Shostak, offered hope to the Coast to Coast Community on the program 1-16-8 and reassured prospective space miners their due should they discover an "anomaly". First when asked whether SETI would run to the government if they discovered any sort of real extraterrestrial signal, he offered an analogy that us regular people can relate to. They would probably first notify other colleagues around the world by email if they didn't pick up a phone first, followed by announcing the event to family members and personal friends which ultimately would make it too difficult for the Feds to cover up or dismiss by virtue of the number of people that would know first before they ever received the information. Also, any real signal anomaly picked up initially by one of the 5,000,000 computer geeks working with SETI by using their computers to process data is guaranteed to be recognized for their discovery if it is concluded that it is deemed something from an extraterrestrial civilization. In short, you can basically start planning on how to spend the money that potentially be coming their way and all the accolades of making such a life changing discovery.