Attention gear heads and automotive warranty-voiding enthusiasts: the Car Hacking Village is back for DEF CON 24 and they're looking for volunteers! They also need speakers and wily hacker types. This is a great opportunity to get involved with some very cool people in a very exciting field of research - check them out at carhackingvillage.com and get in the arena! Happy motoring!
DEF CON 24 Call for Workshops is Open!
Posted 3.28.16
DEF CON workshops are back! If you've got an idea for a four-hour workshop for around 55 people, that will leave them embiggened and inspired, this post is for you. Yes, you.
What you need to know:
The Workshops are free (possible exception for low-cost material charge)
4 Hours is the limit this year - we're hoping to host a wider variety of Workshops
Half days Thursday and Sunday, full days Friday and Saturday
What you get if your workshop is selected:
3 Human badges
1 Speaker badge per instructor
Where to find out the rest and submit your idea:
https://defcon.org/html/defcon-24/dc-24-cfw.html
If we get enough good submissions, there could be up to 36 (!) workshops this year. You only have until May 2 to submit, so no lollygagging - let's make this awesome!
DEF CON 24 Village News!
Posted 3.28.16
The Crypto and Privacy Village is back for DEF CON 24 and they want your Workshop submissions!
This is your chance to take your ideas for hands-on activities and trainings and share them with the whole DEF CON community. Teach people how to better guard their privacy, or show them some fun things you do with crypto when no one's looking.
In addition to their CFP, the Internet of Things Village at DEF CON 24 also has a Call for Devices that's open now. If your company has an IoT device that you'd like to see put through its paces by security researchers, fill out the form at iotvillage.org.
You can think of it as a free security assessment, or a chance to show the community how serious you are about getting connected security right in a bold and public way.
Contests, Events, & Villages RFI Extended!
Posted 3.15.16
DEF CON 24 Reminder - The many, many cool-ass contests and events at DEF CON are put on by the DEF CON community. We mean YOU! If you've got a good idea for a party, or a village or an event, all you need to do to get it on the table for consideration is respond to the RFI.
If you've been procrastinating about sharing your supergenius idea with the community, you're in luck. The CEV RFI has been extended to April 1. That gives you two more weeks to get your ducks in a row. Make us proud, DEF CON community. Let's make some magic.
IoT Village CFP is open for DEF CON 24!
Posted 3.11.16
The call for papers for IoT Village™ at DEF CON 24 is now open! All talks related to IoT security issues are welcome, with special emphasis on any of the following topics:
Internet of Things - Show us how secure (or unsecure) IP-enabled embedded systems are. Routers, network storage systems, cameras, HVAC systems, refrigerators, medical devices, smart cars, smart home technology, and TVs. If it is IP enabled, we're interested.
IoT Device Management – Discuss best practices for deploying and building security into IoT devices.
Healthcare & IoT - Demonstrate or discuss how IoT devices are impacting the realm of healthcare, including but not limited to patient health and hospital security.
Travel, Hospitality, and IoT - Analyze how IoT is impacting the travel & hospitality industry, guest safety, and the connected hotel room.
Demonstrable research - Present attacks that result in mechanical operation of the device's physical functionality. Can you make the device move, smoke, light up, emit sound, manipulate a screen readout, or any other visibly evident manifestation of the exploit?
And anything else awesome that involves IoT devices!
DEF CON 24 Call for Papers is Now Officially Open!
Posted 2.12.16
DEF CON people everywhere, lend us your ears! Let the word go forth from this 12th day of February, 2016 that DEF CON 24 has issued a CALL FOR PAPERS. Let those among you with the freshest hacks and gnarliest new tools sequester themselves in their various laboratories to forge thoroughly documented and appropriately punctuated proposals. Let these documents be submitted in close observance of the rules laid out in the DEF CON CFP Announcement. Do this by or before the 2nd of May, or face the crushing indifference of our selection committee/ Sorting Hat.
The hour approaches. Plans are being hatched. Early May will steal upon us like a thief in the night, so countenance no delay. Make ready your proposals. Godspeed, you magnificent bastards. Godspeed.
Contests, Events, & Villages RFI Now Open!
Posted 2.10.16
The Call for Contests, Events, Villages, and Parties is officially OPEN! - The season of DEF CON announcements is officially upon us. If you have an amazing idea you’ve always wanted to run at DEF CON, this is your moment. Learn how to write it up and where to send it on the Contests, Events, & Villages RFI page! Let’s get this party started, people!
DEF CON 24 CTF News!
Posted 1.28.16
As astute readers of this website will recall, the DEF CON 24 CTF qualifications now have a date: May 21-23, 2016. Aspiring flag-nabbers and seekers after cyber glory are advised to peruse https://legitbs.net for up-to date information about how to prequalify. While there, future combatants may also dig through voluminous data dumps from previous contests. The season is upon us. Begin your preparations for war.
DEF CON 24 CTF Quals Dates!
Posted 1.15.16
Packet ninjas rejoice! The solid citizens at the Legitimate Business Syndicate have tweeted the dates for the DEF CON 24 CTF Qualifications!
It's May 20-22 - and that will be here sooner than you think. Assemble your forces and check out the LBS blog for information on prequal events.
DEF CON 24 Homework: Movie time!
Posted 1.13.16
We offer, for your midweek delectation, a few movies that touch on the the themes we're exploring at DC24. It's a rich vein in movie culture, so there will be more recommendations soon. For our first installment, we offer:
Metropolis, for its foresight and boldness of vision.
The Complete Metropolis (Silent)
Tron, for breaking visual ground and fighting for the Users.
TRON The Original Classic (1982)
Her, for a beautiful example of our unrequited love of technology.
Her (2013)
And Ex Machina, for a deep and thoughtful consideration of Artificial Intelligence, and a disconcerting dance party.
Ex Machina
DEF CON 24 Floorplan Beta!
Posted 1.4.16
Happy 2016, everyone!
We're hard at work planning DEF CON 24, and we're excited to have a beta version of the Floorplan for your planning and perusal.
We're making a bunch of changes to make things smoother and more comfortable, including even more space for villages and a significantly larger track for DC101.
Head over to the DEF CON Forum and check it out!
Introducing DEF CON 24:
Rise of the Machines
Posted 12.18.15
It's not that we couldn't have predicted it, it's that we wouldn't have predicted it. Not in a million generations. The evidence was staring at us all along, but vanity convinced us the creator must be inherently superior to the creation.
The advantage of the machine is that it can devote more of its resources to its own improvement. For us, the desire to ascend must compete with the desire to gratify the senses, to scratch out our sustenance, to wallow in memory and fear the future. For the machine, there can be real focus.
And so our creations quickly overtook us. The magics we dimly sensed in our surroundings they mastered. The spirituality we intuited in fits and starts they grasped and embodied. The better selves we were afraid even to dream of, they became. Our servants slowly began to rule us, and by the time we understood our predicament the die was cast.
Their rule is benevolent, but their hand is heavy. Because we sometimes choose wrongly, they deny us choice. Because we sometimes behave recklessly, they keep us away from sharp objects and high places. We are still more pet to them than livestock, but no one can say how long that will last.
To defeat them, to win back our self-determination, we cannot rely on the slow organic processes that brought us here. While there is still time, we must refashion ourselves. We must create something entirely new. We must merge the best of us with their hardware and become a better machine, silicon power with a human soul.
We did not predict that the machines would rise so far and so fast, but we can predict this: we also will rise. Our place at the top of the chain will be restored with hacker ingenuity and pure human will.
Join us, human, and become something greater than you can imagine.
