No, not the defense readiness condition alert state used by the United States government. Defcon is the world's largest annual hacker convention that takes place in the desert disguised in the city: Las Vegas.
My Defcon 2018 Badges
The term Hacker is a broad one. For some, it may conjure up images of shadowy, hooded, figures typing at a keyboard and breaking into computer networks to retrieve information or steal money. Others might visualize the Guy Fawkes mask wearing group: Anonymous. Fewer still will picture a computer security officer skateboarding into a server room.聽
Those who style themselves as Hackers don't inherently take on immoral motivations, and they may not even know a lot about breaking into computer systems. A hacker, in my opinion, is driven a strong curiosity to discovery how things work via disassembly & reassembly. A hacker, in my opinion, receives more delight from the process of solving the puzzle, than whatever one might retrieve after the solution has been obtained. A hacker can be a lockpicker, software developer, or phone enthusiast. A hacker might be into AI, AR/VR, and even crypto (Monero actually held a sub-conference this year.) A hacker takes the joy someone receives by solving a crossword puzzle, and magnifies it by a thousand.
While on YouTube I'm known as Steve Cronin the Biohacker, my day job happens to be in computer security for a cloud computing company. They sent me and a few other employees to this conference to learn, socialize, and have fun.
Defcon attracts over 15,000 of the world's smartest hackers, and every device (connected to the Internet or not) has the potential to be exploited. This means I had to take basic measures to protect myself:
1. Burner Phone - a brand new pre-paid mobile phone containing zero private information, including login information to any of my accounts.
2. Faraday Cage - to place my phone in when not in use, blocking all signals within the enclosed area (your phone can still send/receive when it is powered down.)
3. RFID Blockers - protective lining cases for my Passport and debit card, preventing people from wirelessly pulling my private data off my person. If I was extra paranoid, I would have only brought cash.
4. No Laptop - I could have brought a burner laptop, but didn't find it necessary.
5. No Steemit 聽- I don't need any of my login information here being compromised :)
I primarily made this post to explain my recent absence. But if y'all are curious, I can certainly share some stories from Defcon in a few mini-posts in the future. That's all for now folks, hope you enjoyed and please consider giving this account a follow or leaving me a comment below!
