DEFCON 30 - My Experience and Thoughts

I was there for my second DEFCON and it was AMAZING! DEFCON 30 was on August 11th through August 14 of 2022. Here are my thoughts on what made it worthwhile for me.

DEFCON brings into focus a fracture in my life. I don't think I'm the only one who experiences this fracture. For the people who know me IRL (in real life), it requires some explaining to express what DEFCON is. For most of the people that I personally know, I simply state that DEFCON a tech conference in Las Vegas. For someone not interested or immersed in technology, who would know the difference between a tech conference and a hacker conference? Does it even matter? 

Herein lies the reason why DEFCON has appeal for me. Socializing with other tech oriented people is the primary reason I attend DEFCON. There is a certain frustration a person experiences when  you don't have peers who understand or relate to your passions or interests. DEFCON is a 4 day catharsis for said frustration. There IS a difference between a tech conference and a hacker conference! Everyone at DEFCON knows there is a difference as well. As a Blue Team guy with mostly infantile Red Team skills, there is great value in socializing with people who speak a common language.  I can have a beer with strangers and discuss in technical depth topics that are generally relegated to my work relationships. My passion for computer topics don't have to be self censored in favor of finding common ground topics of discussion. At DEFCON, my interests ARE the common ground! I don't have to explain that a Raspberry Pi isn't a pastry! Often, I'll find someone who can teach me something about a topic I already felt knowledgeable on, which makes me happy! 

The highlight of my DEFCON was definitely meeting Shannon Morse. She is the talented co-host of Hak 5 along with Darren Kitchen. She is also the host of her own podcast, Morse Code. In the below image, I was dancing in the Chillout area and caught her walking around out of the corner of my eye. Having been a fan for yeas, I shouted, "Are you Shannon Morse??!?!?!". As she whipped around from the shock of my exasperated question, "Yes, I am!", she responded. A brief exchange ensued, she asked about my life, graciously accepted my request for a hug, then posed for this selfie! 

Afterwards, someone from her entourage handed me an SBC (single board computer). After some researching, I learned it is called BYO 9 key keyboard kit. Its an amazing and fitting gift as I am already the owner of 2 Raspberry Pi 3's. 

Aside from that, I did attend a few talks. I attended the A.I. Village talk as I am hugely interested in artificial intelligence. The talk demonstrated how to create a spam email filter using Python and machine learning. It wasn't as exotic as I was hoping, but it was interesting enough. Its often advised not to attend the talks at DEFCON as they are recorded and get released online weeks after DEFCON concludes. However, I found in-person attendance of the talk in Quantum Village to be a great use of time! I was able to pepper questions at Vikram Sharma after he finished his talk on quantum computing and cyber security. The rise of quantum computers will have significant consequences for cryptography. As I understand it, in the next 5-10 years, we may be living in a world where governments and multi-national corporations are able to spy on any encrypted Internet traffic they want.  

What better way to kick back with a group of tech savvy people than a game of chess? I started playing chess on my cell phone in 2020 when the pandemic started. Two years later, I still play about 1 game everyday. While only an anecdote, I feel like chess has helped me become a better troubleshooter in my day job. I won't say that I'm terribly good at chess, but I'm definitely not a beginner. My interest in chess was sprung by AI chess playing systems such as Alpha Zero crushing Stockfish. I played my first over the board chess games, 5 games, with a record of 3 wins and 2 losses. In all honesty, I didn't care about wins and losses. It was just nice to be around other people who felt playing a game of chess was a reasonable use of time. For my efforts, I received this chess pin from the Las Vegas chess club. Maybe I'm weird to think it, but chess with these guys and gals was a blast!

Last be not least, I also made time for the DEFCON night life! I took some time to have a few shots, dance, play video games and converse! Have a glimpse of my DEFCON video.

While opinions about DEFCON can be divided, it was 100% worth it for me. For a few days out of the year, I have the opportunity to connect, network, party and generally geek out with similarly like minded people. A place where talking about the coding project you did on the weekend won't catch a sideways stare. I get to meet personal celebrities of mine such as Shannon Morse, and generally become reinvigorated with enthusiasm about tech by observing the creativity and enthusiasm of others. I would encourage any security professional or general tech professional to try it at least once. I had a blast and hope to attend another in the future!