July 27-30 at Caesars Palace!
Here's the skinny so far:
New to DEF CON?
Find out what it's all about!
DEF CON has been a part of the hacker community for over two decades. Pick up a bit of history and origin on the About Page. The DEF CON FAQ has the answers to most of the common questions you might have.
A treasure trove of hacking knowledge
awaits in our past media!
DEF CON Media Server. Speeches, music, art, and more!
For the big downloaders, check out our Torrents.
On the go, watch DEF CON Presentations on iTunes.
Want to participate?
There are a myriad of ways!
DEF CON is what you make it. If you'd like to do more than just attend, have a look at our Get Involved page for ideas!
Year round, consider joining a local DEF CON Group, or get active on the DEF CON Forums!
We've got some new stuff in the trusty old DEF CON eBay store for you - including DEF CON 24 Rucksack and Duffel bags and the hit "Jack" soldering Kit from HACKED at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Start the new year right - treat yourself to the very finest of hacker swag!
Greetings, hacker fam. It's time to announce the theme for DEF CON 25!
Welcome to DEF CON's Silver Anniversary!
We're celebrating 25 years of warranty-voiding, boundary-expanding adventures in technological subversion, and looking forward to the next 25.
The theme this year is 'Community, Discovery and the Unintended Uses of Technology' and the vibe is retrofuturist - think maxed-out 8-bit grafx in a dark arcade, lovingly defaced websites in Netscape Navigator. A world where adventurous digital misfits are building a new world out of the pixels and info the Powers that Be leave behind.
We've come a long way together, from the obscurity of BBS life to Runner-Up for Time's Person of the Year. From 20 people at the CON to 20,000. From media scapegoat to – well, it's a work in progress.
Join us at Caesars Palace to look back at how we got here, and to imagine together where we go next.
According to CrowdStrike, the Russian hackers known as ‘Fancy Bear’ (recently in the news regarding the US election) or APT28 used a trojanized Android targeting app to geolocate and frustrate Ukrainian artillery.
From the article: “It’s incredible, from a technical point of view, that hackers and hacking can so drastically influence the outcome of military engagements,” Wardle said. “If this is all true, I mean, it would have been a huge, huge advantage for the Russians to be able to geolocate the Ukrainian artillery units...basically in real-time, via an infected Android app. Crazy.”
It’s worth noting that at DEF CON 23 Runa Sandvik and Michael Auger dealt with the possibilities of using connected weaponry against its owners in their talk “Hacking a Linux Powered Rifle”. You can check that presentation out here.
In the spirit of this festive season, DEF CON has a gift for you and your various screenz: wallpapers for everyone!
Designed by our very own Mar Williams and sized to fit many popular devices, these DEF CON 25 wallpapers will make your lock screen the talk of the town!
And while you're admiring your spiced-up mobile, remember that you can still get a T-shirt emblazoned with this very same artwork at teespring.com/defconstash, for the next several days.
Heads up to all the CTF fans out there: the upstanding citizens of the Legitimate Business Syndicate have alerted us to some of the contests that will qualify for the DC25 CTF.
According to the Legitimate Business Syndicate (@legit_bs) Twitter feed, the following contests are confirmed as qualifiers:
PlaidCTF (@PlaidCTF)
Boston Key Party (@BkPCTF)
0CTF (@0opsCN)
33C3 CTF (@EatSleepPwnRpt)
If you're not in the dojo getting yourself into tournament shape, it's time to start making better choices.
Gentle reminder: The DEF CON Secret Stash exclusive T-shirt/sticker pack is available for a little while longer. The image comes from DEF CON staff artist Mar Williams and is only available through this offer.
Get yourself some DEF CON 25 swag hella early and tell people you come from the future.
Like #DEFCON? Like #GoRuck Events? Wanna put them together? Express your interest in the DEF CON/GoRuck Custom! http://buff.ly/2h7Th7F
IoT-enabled botnets are all over the news, but the suspect devices are generally consumer-grade. In today's #internetoftriviallycompromisablethings update, 80 different industrial-tier IP cameras shipped with hard-coded creds, opening them up to all kinds of botnet mischief.
Sony has addressed the issue in the latest firmware updates for these devices, and updating is enthusiastically recommended.
Probably a good reminder that the higher prices for corporate-level gear do not imply better security practices.
If you want to devote some time to educating yourself on the current state of the Internet of Things, we suggest starting with the DEF CON 24 IoT Playlist.
Enjoy, share widely and run the latest firmware.
From now until DEF CON 25, we're offering monthly packages of exclusive, limited-edition DEF CON 25 swag.
The December pack is a crisp, fresh DEF CON 25 tee and a high-quality DC25 sticker. The design is courtesy of DEF CON staff artist Mar Williams, created especially for this package. Look sharp, gift like a boss and hide your laptop's shiny metal shame. Rock DEF CON 25 swag like you come from the future.
Watch this space: December 1, DEF CON has something nice for your holiday season. Even if you've been a little naughty.
Music lovers, rejoice! The live music selections from DEF CON 24 are here! Thanks to the generosity of the artists and the miracle of BitTorrent, you can help yourself to a curated selection of the tunes that rocked DC24. Enjoy the (metaphorical) stacks of (figurative) molten wax, in both standard formats and lossless FLACs.
As always, share widely and give the artists you dig some love.
The new Raspberry Pi hotness is Samy Kamkar's PoisonTap. It's a cheap (like dinner at Arby's cheap) device that pops locked machines fast (like the onset of Arby's regret fast). Samy posted a video demo on YouTube, and you should watch it.
If you dig Samy's style and want to see another of his low-fi, hi-yield hacks, we've got a #defconflashbackfriday video for you - Samy demoing inexpensive car/garage door exploiter 'RollJam' at DC23 in supremely informative and entertaining fashion.
Check it out, pass it on.
DEF CON 24 Speaker Patrick Wardle is back in the news with a warning about Shazam's macOS app. Apparently, turning off the app doesn't stop it from recording.
Which is weird, right?
If reading the article has you looking for a little more of Patrick's insights into macOS security, you can check out his talk 'I've Got 99 Problems, Little Snitch Ain't One.' from DC24.
Limber up your hard drives, my friends. If you seek the motherlode of DEF CON 24 content, look no further than our Torrents page. All the talks in multiple formats? Check. DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge content? Music? CTF files? Check, check, super check. Fire up your preferred netguzzler and get to guzzling. Enjoy, seed and share widely.
More hot playlist action - Internet of Troublingly Hackable Things edition! It's a gourmet selection of talks from the main track and the IoT Village. We recommend pairing it with an overcaffeinated beverage and wired headphones. Learn all you like, then make sure to pass it on.
Today's playlist is the DEF CON 24 Wireless Village Talks. Software Defined Radio, evil access point tricks, BLE hacking - it's all in there. If the wireless ecosystem and the hacking thereof floats your boat, it's time to make an appointment with our YouTube channel and get caught up.
As always, share the love and pass on the knowledge..
Today's DEF CON 24 playlist is called 'AFK'; it focuses on talks that deal with policy and ideas rather than hardware and code. Hacker Law superhero Jennifer Granick's talk on the state of the applicable law is in here, as are the 'Meet the Feds' and 'Ask the EFF' panels. There's a little something for every interest, from the venerable Richard Thieme's talk on the psychological toll of working with secrets to the Bob Ross Fan Club's talk on recognizing and neutralizing propaganda.
Thirteen talks in all, with lots of variety. Block off some time (or just put in headphones) and get yourself some. As always, share the love.
More playlists on the way!
The rollout of DEF CON 24 videos continues with 10 videos with a focus on car hacking. There’s a couple of presentations that deal with the CAN BUS, a deep dive into autonomous cars and even a couple specifically about big rigs. Seven of the ten talks come straight out of the Car Hacking Village!
There’s a weekend coming - maybe it’s time to curl up with a laptop and get up to speed on the rapidly expanding world of automotive hacking. As always, enjoy and pass it on.
Big playlist coming Monday!
Today we begin the rollout of the DEF CON 24 talks with a very diverse playlist of crypto and privacy focused presentations.
From the main tracks we have Ladar Levison on compulsory decryption and Nate Cardozo on the State of Crypto in 2016. We also have six talks from the Crypto and Privacy Village!
As ever, we want you to enjoy the presentations, get inspired and pass the knowledge along.
More talks tomorrow!
Today's #defconflashbackfriday is from DEF CON 24, and it's a fun one. Evan Booth's talk this year was on building a bionic hand out of a Keurig coffee maker, but it's also about imagination, creativity and finding potential in the commonplace and unremarkable tech that's all around us. As always, please enjoy, be inspired and pass it on.
DEF CON is on Instagram! We're posting a steady stream of pictures from the vaults, pictures of the preparations we're making for DEF CON 25 and various image-based shareables to amuse and edify all hackerkind. Follow us at wearedefcon and share your memories, your projects, or maybe all the exciting places you're wearing your DEF CON hat. We can't wait to see what you're up to.
DEF CON in the news: To kick off your week with a heaping helping of hope for the future, here's an article from Sara Sorcher and Ann Hermes at the Christian Science Monitor calling out 15 kids killing it in the cybersecurity space.
To our great joy, a bunch of those kids have in common the DEF CON kids' track, R00tz Asylum. CyFi, Kryptina, Evan, Miller and Emmitt - you make us prouder than you know.
The US Presidential election is a few weeks away. Whatever the outcome it’s safe to say this election is an inflection point. Hacked communications, data dumps and claims of state actors using media to influence the vote have dominated the news cycle. These factors and the anxiety and outrage fatigue that acccompany them are likely to be around a while, so it seemed like an opportune moment to repost Chris Rock’s talk on overthrowing governments. It’s a thought-provoking investigation into what it might take to use the modern landscape for toppling a regime, and it’s a good practical alternative to the generalized hysteria promoted by cable news.