Defcon 22 – Security Conference
I love Defcon. I attended two years ago and was disappointed in myself for not going in 2013. Defcon is about security and fun. Although there is a lot to learn and share, there are also parties and other events that fill up the days and nights. Despite being to Las Vegas twice now I haven’t really been a tourist there. I spend all of my time at Defcon.
The presentations at Defcon are the most entertaining talks I see at conferences. They are fascinating and educational. Presenters talk about exploits they’ve made or discovered and the impact the vulnerabilities can have to vendors and users. Presenters bring ideas forward that make you question technologies and think about them in new and different ways. One presentation I saw was about a project where a quadcopter was used to fly autonomously over regions, picking up wireless access points and devices and map their locations. In regards to devices it would record their current location, but using the devices broadcast request would record all the locations that device (and therefore device owner’s) that it had ever been. This is scary from a privacy point of view but it’s amazing to think that hardware has become so accessible and cheap now that anyone can start a similar project to this that can achieve so much.
I also sat on a presentation by Ladar Levison from Lavabit. The owner of the company that hosted Edward Snowden’s email before he become a whistle blower. He discussed his new project that would prevent authorities or anyone getting access to your emails. This is a project that you could host yourself if you desired.
Apart from presentations there are many competitions. These range from lock picking to capture-the-packet and capture-the-flag. Each with their own technical challenges that test your understanding of the underlying technologies.
It was also good to spend time with friends and share stories of our own security challenges and concerns. We walk away from the event with a list of tasks that we force upon ourselves to achieve before the next Defcon. I really hope to attend again next year.