What is DEFCON?
DEFCON is the world's largest hacker conference held in desert Las Vegas every year in blazing-hot August. Seasoned hackers, beginner hackers, security professionals and individuals from three-letter government agencies all attend (the latter in disguise). This event has gotten so big that it usually encompasses a large conference center and areas of three major casino hotels. It's awesome!
What is there to do at DEFCON?
You name it. If it has to do with hacking, you can probably experience it. Each of the bullets below ends with a "etc." because there is so much to do.
- Presentations: DEFCON Talks, SkyTalks, & Village presentations, etc.
- Villages: IoT, Car Hacking, Lockpick, Social Engineering, etc
- Challenges: Capture The Flag (CTF), forensics, crypto, etc.
- Contests: Sheep Hunt, Lockpicking, Mystery Box, etc.
- Want to learn how to hack a Tesla? Make sure you hit up the Car Hacking Village.
- Interested in gaining breaking-and-entering skills? Lock Picking Village and contests may be right up your alley.
- Ever wondered how secure our country's voting machines are? Go to the Voting Machine Hacking Village and talks. You'll be very surprised.
- Curious about those payment systems like point-of-sale machines, ATMs or bitcoin wallets? Payment Village and presentations may fascinate you.
- Have you always wanted to learn to solder a cool project? Head over to the Hardware Hacking and Soldering area to instructions and tips.
So, why do I go to DEFCON?
I go for a couple of reasons...
First, I learn so much. I've learned how to be a better defender from attending and hanging out at the Blue Team Village. Some of the challenges that I've done were oriented around finding bad guys that are either banging at your network's door or one who have snuck in, hiding in the woodwork for the perfect moment to take your jewels. Learning these attack methods have helped me fortify defenses for the companies I have worked for and to slow the criminals down (anyone who has worked in information security long enough know that there is no perfect security).
One of the fun things to watch in the Blue Team area is the Wall of Sheep. The Wall of Sheep is an interactive demonstration of what can happen when network users let their guard down. The Blue Team Village guys passively watching network traffic, looking for evidence of users logging into email, web sites, or other network services without the protection of encryption. Those they find get put on the Wall of Sheep board as a good-natured reminder that a malicious person could do the same thing they did ... with far less friendly consequences.
Second, I enjoy meeting up with friends and hanging out. We're all busy professionals with life demands and sometimes this is the only time to get away and reconnect. I've met cool people, had job interviews with potential employers, sat and laughed with old friends over dinner and in the hallways of DEFCON. The people I've met have been amazing, especially when you learn what they do and don't do for a living.
Finally, information security work can get stressing and frustrating at times. DEFCON is that opportunity to get away and experience again why I got into this industry in the first place. I love being a hacker and fighting bad ones in the technical realm.
Offensive, Defensive... I love both. Break and be broken, it's all part of the hacker ecosystem. It's a truly different world that not many truly understand.
I do. I'm addicted. I'm a DEFCON junkie...