thumb|right|A team participating in a [[Capture the flag|CTF competition at DEFCON 17.]]
A DEFCON 13 "human" badge.
(also written as
DEFCON or
Defcon) is the world's largest annual
hacker convention, held every year in
Las Vegas,
Nevada. The first DEF CON took place in June 1993, and in 2008, over 8500 people attended DEF CON 16.
Many of the attendees at DEF CON include
computer security professionals, journalists, lawyers, federal government employees,
crackers, and
hackers with a general interest in
computer code and
computer architecture. The event consists of several tracks of speakers about computer- and hacking-related subjects, as well as social events and contests in everything from creating the longest
Wi-Fi connection and cracking computer systems to who can most effectively cool a beer in the Nevada heat. Other contests include lockpicking,
robotic-related contests, art, slogan, coffee wars, and Capture the Flag. Capture the Flag (CTF) is perhaps the best known of these contests. It is a hacking competition where teams of hackers attempt to attack and defend computers and networks. CTF has been emulated at other hacking conferences as well as in academic and military contexts.
Conference founder,
Jeff Moss, contends that the quality of submitted talks has diminished since DEF CON's inception.
Since DEF CON 11, fundraisers have been conducted for the
Electronic Frontier Foundation. The first fundraiser was a
dunk tank and was an "official" event.
History of DEFCON
DEFCON was founded in 1992 by
Jeff Moss as a going away party for his friend and fellow hacker. The party was planned for Las Vegas a few days before his friend had to leave the United States because his Dad had received a job out of the country. However, his friend's dad left early and took him with, so Jeff was left alone with the entire party planned. Jeff decided to invite all his hacker friends to go to Las Vegas with him and have the party with them instead. Hacker friends from far and wide got together and laid the foundation for DEFCON, with roughly a 100 person attendance. The term DEFCON comes from the movie
War Games, DEFCON obviously alluding to the
Air force readiness level. In the movie Las Vegas is nuked, and since the event was being hosted in Las Vegas, it occurred to Jeff Moss to name the convention DEFCON. However, to a lesser extent, CON stands for convention and DEF stands for the number 3 on a telephone, a reference to phone freakers. DEFCON was planned to be a one time deal, a party for his friend, but he kept getting emails from people encouraging him to host the event the next year. After awhile, he was convinced to host the event again, and the attendance nearly doubled the second year.
Noteworthy incidents
Federal law enforcement agents from the
FBI,
DoD,
United States Postal Inspection Service and other agencies regularly attend DEF CON, and are not required to wear identification badges.
2001
On July 16, 2001, Russian programmer
Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested the day after DEF CON for writing software to decrypt
Adobe's e-book format.
2007
In August 2007, Michelle Madigan, a reporter for
Dateline NBC, attempted to secretly record hackers admitting to crimes at the convention. After being outed by DEF CON founder Jeff Moss during an assembly, she was heckled and chased out of the convention by attendees for her use of covert audio and video recording equipment. DEF CON staff tried to get Madigan to obtain a press pass before the outing happened.
A DEF CON source at NBC had tipped off organizers to Madigan's plans.
2008
MIT students Zack Anderson, RJ Ryan and Alessandro Chiesa were to present a session entitled "The Anatomy of a Subway Hack: Breaking Crypto RFIDS and Magstripes of Ticketing Systems". The presentation description included the phrase "Want free subway rides for life?" and promised to focus on the Boston T subway. However, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) sued the students and MIT in United States District Court in Massachusetts on August 8, claiming that the students violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) by delivering information to conference attendees that could be used to defraud the MBTA of transit fares.
The court issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the students from disclosing the material for a period of ten days, despite the fact the material had already been disseminated to DefCon attendees at the start of the show.
In this year's contest "Race to Zero", contestants submitted a version of given malware which must be undetectable by all of the antivirus engines in each round. The contest concept has attracted much negative attention.
List of venues
- DC7 1999 through DC13 2005 were held at the Alexis Park Resort.
See also
