Experience At Defcon 08-05-2013, 09:30 AM
#1
So, I'm sure a few people noticed I'd vanished off of the internet for a few days. If I hadn't already told you, or you couldn't tell from my recent posts, I went to Defcon in Vegas. It was easily one of the most interesting events I've been to, although not necessarily the most fun. Reason being, I didn't have a working operating system the majority of the convention and I had to improvise a lot more than I'd have otherwise wanted. I'll just list some pros and cons about my trip and you guys can ask questions.
Pros
The things that made the trip as awesome as it was.
Cons
The things I didn't exactly like about my trip.
Tips
In one of the most hostile settings, there are things you must do.
All in all, I feel I wasted a large portion on the convention dealing with my lack of a decent distribution, but it was still fun and I learned a lot. If I visit again, I'll definitely find ways to offset the cons and have more fun. Regardless of if I go again, I think it's something everyone needs to do once.
Tl;dr
It was fun as hell and worth the money, although it could have been better if I did things differently.
Pros
The things that made the trip as awesome as it was.
- People were insanely nice and ready to answer questions, no matter how stupid or pointless. Even when skids were being skids, they'd turn a blind eye. I wish all members on SL were like this.
- Lots of different vendors and presenters. From Matthew Prince to Darren of Hak5. It was pretty cool to see and meet people I've seen on the net. I picked up a Wifi Pineapple and a new Alfa AWUS036NHA to replace the one I lost.
- Lots of different forms of hacking shown. There were talks on how to hack cars, cameras, etc... There was also a lockpicking village, which may have been the highlight of my trip. Additionally, they had a badge challenge, where you had to solve puzzles on the badges and stuff like that.
- The amazing opportunity to learn more than you would in months, in just a few days on various subjects. Even though it was a pain in the ass to get online and stuff, I still managed to learn quite a bit in 4 days.
- Really good food. Seriously, Merc and I ate at the All-American Bar & Grille at least twice because the food was so good. The restaurants weren't exactly a part of the convention, but I think it was worth mentioning.
Cons
The things I didn't exactly like about my trip.
- The hotel charged $18 a day for internet. They have the pleasure of hosting one of the largest technology conventions in the world, yet they charge people for internet. The internet isn't all that great either, since I couldn't even download a new distro in less than a day. The only thing the internet was good for was sniffing other people that were dumb enough to use Facebook.
- Not as many presentations on web-exploitation. There were a few on DDOS attacks (like one from Prince), but not many on other threats webmasters face. I'll admit, this was kind-of a disappointment, but it was still fun.
- You couldn't experience the true nightlife unless you were 21. For the most part, my nightlife consisted of analyzing the network's traffic after everybody had gotten back from bars/clubs. This was, of course, after I paid the $18 fee. I'm accustomed to living outside of the USA, where in most cases the drinking age is 18. Oh well.
- Surprisingly hard to get a copy of a distribution on a pendrive. Seriously, I would have taken just about any. Unetbootin failed on one of my laptops and the other got messed up when I changed the network-manager. If I could change one thing, it would have been remembering my backup drive.
Tips
In one of the most hostile settings, there are things you must do.
- Don't log in to anything important. Really. Merc and I found plenty of people sniffing the hotel's network even before the events started. Plenty of cookies were eaten.
- Tether internet off of your cellphone if you can and use 4g only. They have set up fake cell towers in the past, but it's unlikely they can do anything if you're using 4g.
- Use a VPN if you can, since this makes obtaining credentials much harder for attackers. Personally, I tethered internet from my phone and used 4g only.
- Be conscious of where you and your things are, otherwise they will probably be taken and/or broken. Nobody likes broken things.
- If you see something you like and have money for it, buy it quick. Some stuff, like the Wifi Pineapples, went out of stock very fast and many people couldn't buy them.
- Try new things. I tried my hand at lockpicking and really ended up enjoying it. It's something you can do when watching a movie or listening to music.
All in all, I feel I wasted a large portion on the convention dealing with my lack of a decent distribution, but it was still fun and I learned a lot. If I visit again, I'll definitely find ways to offset the cons and have more fun. Regardless of if I go again, I think it's something everyone needs to do once.
Tl;dr
It was fun as hell and worth the money, although it could have been better if I did things differently.
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Hope you had a good vacation and it's good to have you back!