Another year, another DefCon, another litany of epic security fails. Like this Biolock Model 333, a high-tech and high-priced bit of protection that surely requires expert tools and technique to override. Here’s how it does against a paperclip:
The infamous DefCon hackers convention is going on in Las Vegas right now. And, just a word of advice. If you’re going to visit, grab your cash before entering the conference.
Network access at conferences sucks, pretty much without exception. That is, unless it’s built by the badge-wearing network ops volunteers of the Defcon hacker convention, who are affectionately referred to as the “Goons” (read: IT badasses). Wired’s Threat Level got a chance to look behind the scenes and snap some great photos of the network gear (and chain link fences, and padlocks, and German Shepherds) that make the Defcon network the fortress that it needs to be to keep a network full of hackers from tearing each other apart.
Wired got a sneak peek at one of the more fun aspects of this coming weekend’s Defcon, the hackable badge. Last year’s badge was hacked in just ten minutes, but it didn’t have an SD card slot at USB support. The new card has fewer features than last year’s but is more powerful. And it comes with a longer battery life, good news. But not everything is known, and that’s kind of the point to these fun trinkets. [Wired]
Reading the story about NBC’s undercover reporter getting ousted from hacker convention DefCon was enjoyable. Watching the video… that’s something really special. Here’s the whole story, from beginning to end.
Now, now, don’t get too excited. Creator Joe Grand designed it to be hacked. Still, 10 minutes is a pretty respectable time for the soldering, reprogramming and reflashing job done by Dave Bullock, Wired’s photographer at the event. The badge features an LED display with scrolling text, and it even has an easter egg (typing in 31337 outputs “$kingpin$”, the board maker’s handle.) [Wired, but beautiful photos from Dave] galleryPost('defconbadge', 4, 'DefCon Badge');
