Black Hat hits DefCon level
The hackers are coming! If you live in the Vegas area, lock up your wireless networks and don't use an ATM on the strip! You have been warned.
Hackers take over Vegas this weekend for the annual gathering of web white hats known as Black Hat -- not to be confused with its alter ego, the black-hat gathering called DefCon.
Wait, don't know the lingo? White hats are hackers who do good things, like inform companies when they have security holes or help Angelina Jolie bust up corporate bad guys who launch bogus viruses to sink oil tankers --(Hackers anyone? How could you call yourself an geek and not have seen that movie? Where do you think my penchant for jewel-colored hair comes from?) -- black hats are the malicious ones who do criminal things, and grey hats are the ones in the middle, who will hack into a company but demand money to reveal how they did it. The fact that the good guys name their conference after the bad guys is merely a play on words... or is it?
These days, Black Hat has gained an edge normally reserved for DefCon -- it will institute a 'Wall of Sheep' this weekend that lists all of the unprotected wireless networks at the conference, because who would be stupid enough to attend a hackers conference without any computer security, right? The sessions sound brilliant, with names like 'Bad Sushi' and 'Satan is on my Friends List,' and a featured event, for me, at least, is the mock 'Hacker's Court.'
In a previous life as a computer security editor, I had the ultimate treat a few years back of being invited to and attending Black Hat. It was technical geek heaven. I lazily ate crab cakes from Jimmy Buffet's while reporting boring news on web standards and interviewing some very cool people -- like Shawn Moyer -- while internally bursting with an almost-fangirl excitement when Kevin Mitnick introduced himself to me and actually knew *my* name. Apparently, though, those were the days when this off-center conference was still a bit tame.
These conferences are informative, fun and a great social gathering of the smartest minds in the world of computer security -- regardless of what they choose to do with the information after they leave Las Vegas. If you have the pleasure of attending, send me some pics and please enjoy yourself -- just promise me you won't use an ATM.
Hackers take over Vegas this weekend for the annual gathering of web white hats known as Black Hat -- not to be confused with its alter ego, the black-hat gathering called DefCon.
Wait, don't know the lingo? White hats are hackers who do good things, like inform companies when they have security holes or help Angelina Jolie bust up corporate bad guys who launch bogus viruses to sink oil tankers --(Hackers anyone? How could you call yourself an geek and not have seen that movie? Where do you think my penchant for jewel-colored hair comes from?) -- black hats are the malicious ones who do criminal things, and grey hats are the ones in the middle, who will hack into a company but demand money to reveal how they did it. The fact that the good guys name their conference after the bad guys is merely a play on words... or is it?
These days, Black Hat has gained an edge normally reserved for DefCon -- it will institute a 'Wall of Sheep' this weekend that lists all of the unprotected wireless networks at the conference, because who would be stupid enough to attend a hackers conference without any computer security, right? The sessions sound brilliant, with names like 'Bad Sushi' and 'Satan is on my Friends List,' and a featured event, for me, at least, is the mock 'Hacker's Court.'
In a previous life as a computer security editor, I had the ultimate treat a few years back of being invited to and attending Black Hat. It was technical geek heaven. I lazily ate crab cakes from Jimmy Buffet's while reporting boring news on web standards and interviewing some very cool people -- like Shawn Moyer -- while internally bursting with an almost-fangirl excitement when Kevin Mitnick introduced himself to me and actually knew *my* name. Apparently, though, those were the days when this off-center conference was still a bit tame.
These conferences are informative, fun and a great social gathering of the smartest minds in the world of computer security -- regardless of what they choose to do with the information after they leave Las Vegas. If you have the pleasure of attending, send me some pics and please enjoy yourself -- just promise me you won't use an ATM.
Labels: Black Hat, computer security, DefCon, hackers, Kevin Mitnick, Shawn Moyer, Wall of Sheep
This entry was posted by Amber, on Thursday, August 7, 2008. You can
leave your response
. 
