Hacker defcon Patch#

That's where I saw the talks on how a vulnerable Wi-Fi network could crash your iPhone, and cheap phones that were sending data without your permission.

If you wanted anything of value - and weren't looking to get a new security system for your network - you needed to be upstairs, where all the briefings were. I saw a magician demonstrating a trick and before the big finish told the crowd, 'you have to promise me you'll stay after!' Another had a replica moon rover and an astronaut. One company offered a raffle to win a Nintendo Switch if you'd stop by and listen to why their security is the best. The floor looked like any other tech convention I had been to, with huddles of booths set up with silly gimmicks to grab your attention. People warned me about getting hacked so frequently that I would constantly check my phone to make sure the Wi-Fi wasn't accidentally turned on.īut Black Hat was the kick-off conference that week, and it wasn't the scary hacker hangout I imagined.Įverywhere you walked, some company was trying to sell you with marketing buzzwords on why their 'endpoint security is the artificial intelligence solution for risk management that your hybrid enterprise needs' - it all became corporate white noise. I knew about the dreaded Wall of Sheep at Defcon, a list of names and redacted passwords projected on the wall in a dark room at the Packet Hacking Village in Caesar's Palace, where anybody who was stupid enough to log into an insecure Wi-Fi network and an unencrypted website could have their information made public to the world. The Wall of Sheep, where names and redacted passwords get posted if your information gets hacked.Īt the largest gathering of hackers in the world, I needed to be on my toes about any devices that I had without the latest security patches. It's just one of the lessons I learned at my first hacker convention. I thought they had given up, but I later found out through Twitter that people discovered there was a second, empty escalator in the back if you just cut through the pool area.įor a conference dedicated to finding vulnerabilities and loopholes, it shouldn't have been a surprise that hackers would find a physical end-around to getting inside. Then, in the distance, there was a flow of motion heading away from the escalator. The line was crawling like a dial-up connection, and I overheard chatter from someone else also suffering in impatience: 'Do you feel like a penguin right now? We're literally waddling to move.' As a result, it's fostered an important relationship between two sides of the same coin.īut I still needed to get in.

Hacker defcon Patch#

It's steadily become one of the marquee places where hackers reveal the latest exploits they've discovered, allowing security officials to patch their network before any malicious attacks break out. It was the line to get into Defcon on its opening morning - where hackers, security experts, researchers and federal agents in disguise were waiting for what many in the community call 'Hacker Summer Camp.'ĭefcon is the second of two Las Vegas conferences - the first being Black Hat earlier in the week - that offers people in the information security community a chance to share updates on the latest hacks and ways to stop them.

Thompson or the tin-foiled fedoras didn't offer any answers. Their flashing badges featuring Bender from 'Futurama' as Hunter S. Vacationing families, bachelorette parties and packs of bros looked in confusion as they navigated around the massive clump of people queued at the escalators. The line stretched deep into the casino at Caesar's Palace, past the blackjack dealers, clanging slot machines and craps tables.