back to article Security world to hit Las Vegas for a week of hacking, cracking, fun

About a quarter of a century ago, a handful of hackers decided to have a party in a cheap hotel, and had a whale of a time. Fast forward to 2018, and that get-together has grown into events that will see an estimated 30,000 people converge on Las Vegas for the biggest security shindig in the world – the combination of Black …

  1. wsm

    Hackers conference?

    So, who is going to get arrested this year? Another Marcus? Just saying it's a possibility.

    1. fm+theregister

      Re: Hackers conference?

      https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/03/wannacry_killer_hutchins_arrested/

      Not a possibility. A fact! directly from Andrew Grove:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Grove

      -"Only the paranoid survive"

  2. Wolfclaw

    Have the FBI and yank spooks been invited with blank arrest warrants for persons of interests?

  3. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    DEFCON has always been fun - it should be interesting this year given that we have the mid-term elections in a couple of months in the US and you folks have BREXIT soon afterwards ...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Will they be keeping out the gobby alt-wrong types, who know fuck all about computers, hacking and manners, this time round?

    1. Wolfclaw

      You must talking about a Daily Mail reporter, they think a butt plug is a rear interface tool for a floppy.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Non terrestrial hackers?

    Last I heard some folks may be paying a visit.

    Nevada isn't *that* far from S-4 aka Groom Lake/Dreamland.

    If anyone sees some very nervous looking person with unusual irises and a rather ornate armband showing some strange runic symbols on its screen that never seems to eat nor drink but stays close to a power point... its not me but I know them.

  6. The Dogs Meevonks Silver badge

    Go to America and play Russian roulette on being arrested on 'Trump'd up charges.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Passport

    Could be a problem, but I can always ask nicely.

    I think the problem *might* be not just the time factor but the lack of a chip.

  8. madmerlin
    Pint

    a weird feeling

    I volunteered @ DefCon for a couple of years in the Quartermasters stores.

    I had the honor of being one of the guys that carried the ATM's that was used in the Barnaby Jacks talk off stage to an awaiting SUV. It was a weird feeling walking though a casino carrying one end of an ATM, we did get a few weird looks....

    An the icon, Barnaby, have one of me wherever you are!!

  9. Christian Berger

    Of course in the UK there's always the EMF camp

    aka the Elektromagnetic Field Camp.

    Or the ICMP, the Intergalactic Club Mate Party, a hackers camp that has a non-web ticket shop. (it uses ssh)

    In general the European conferences seem to be more self reflective. While the DEF CON used to have Facebook sponsor their badge which was a smartphone controlled by Facebook, sponsoring is rare on European conferences, and the bit of sponsoring there is in goods. For example Deutsche Telekom sponsors some bandwidth, but no money, equipment vendors sponsor equipment loans, and so on.

    1. Surreal
      FAIL

      Re: Of course in the UK there's always the EMF camp

      Christian: thou art full-to-overflowing with manure. Did Facebook decline to make phones for your Euro-Con, or wtf? You don't deserve a new essay, so I'll partially re-snark:

      When you spew bullshit based on hearsay, and/or use the magic phrase "it is rumoured", you out yourself as a hysteria-stoking ninny with an agenda.

      Btw, I heard that at the coolest Euro Cons, doggies say "meow" and cats go "woof-woof!" ...

      From 18 years first-hand experience, there have never, ever been Facebook-provided smartphone badges, or corporate-branded anything. There were electronic, highly hackable badges, mostly designed by the likes of Joe Grand.

      ...

      I don't usually pick nits, but you're freaking crawlin' with 'em, comrade.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'll be there

    If you attend Defcon and see a tall guy with a black eye, say; "hello from a fellow Reg reader"

    (I was tossing fighters out of a club and got clipped last weekend)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'll be there

      You could say that was a side effect of a (flippety flip rustle) "Thermal runaway event in a biological system"

      But in fact bio-hacking is a thing or so I read.

      From implants, neural networks connected to the brain via peripheral nerves (think Prof K Warwick tried that), etc. Even some folks are splicing genes like they are going out of fashion.

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