During the year I’m bombarded with vendors pitching their next product as the latest and greatest. Defcon is one of the only conferences that doesn’t have a large commercial interest. This is the conference that as security practitioners is for us, by us.
I use Defcon to broaden my understanding of the overall security landscape uncolored by vendor sales pitches. I gravitate toward talks and content that I don’t regularly hear in other areas.
An example of this is Skytalks. These are talks that are “technical deep dives, off-the-beaten path discussions, early-access talks, cool technology, and plenty of shenanigans.” This includes the famous Social Engineering happening live while you listen, completely off the record – no cameras and no recordings. Find out more at Skytalks and check out their epic poster this year.
Lastly, I spend a lot of time in the villages. Since most of the non Skytalk speakers are recorded, they can be watched later, but the interactions in the villages aren’t replicable. For example, at DC 28 I learned about hacking the system that manages the containers as they are stacked on ocean vessels. I also enjoyed watching people handcuff themselves at the lock picking village, and even how an elevator with locked floors can be shorted out to access one of the locked floors.
I hope this assists you in prioritizing how to maximize your time at Defcon 30.
See you there!
Eric
Visit DEFCON 30 Homecoming: https://defcon.org/html/defcon-30/dc-30-index.html
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