So, I promised some coverage of DEFCON - I hope none of you mind it being a bit over a month late. ^_^;
I didn't pick up many technical details. Most of the actual tutorials and new ideas are presented at Black Hat Briefings, the more offical and more expensive convention held just before DEFCON each year. As is implied in most of the material, DEFCON is much more social, which is the perspective I saw it from.
I attended several of DEFCON's technical sessions, although I missed out on quite a bit due to oversleeping. The most interesting was Joe Klein's talk on Information Leakage, most of which described how to track down incredible amounts of personal information on the Web. I may go ahead and post the updated slides from the talk, after I've gone through the sites and removed my own information...
As for the social scene, it was quite fun. The dealer's area had plenty of amusing equipment and t-shirts. I picked up a ruggedized 486 laptop that used to belong to PG&E, and would possibly have bought something that looked like a small torpedo, if not for the frightening thought of trying to get it through airport security. I also ended up going to one of the larger unofficial parties - it was by far the wildest party I've ever been to, though that may not be saying much. I'm not sure whether I enjoyed it or not, but signs point to "yes."
On Sunday, after most everything was over, I was interviewed (on camera) for about 20 minutes by two students from Los Angeles, who were making a documentary about the computer underground community. I tend to look and sound terrible on-camera...we'll see.
The only bad things about DEFCON were the price ($75.00 registration, cash only) and the location. The most important thing I learned was:
Don't go to Las Vegas.
Posted by jrenken at September 6, 2003 03:44 AM