Surviving a hacker conference
posted Dec 25th 2008 9:35pm by Eliot Phillipsfiled under: downloads hacks, pcs hacks, security hacks
With another hacker conference looming in front of us, it’s time to start thinking about hardware security. Hacker conventions have the most hostile network you’ll ever encounter. [Security4all] points out that 25C3 already has an extensive page on securing your hardware. It starts from the ground up with physical security, BIOS passwords, and locking down bootloaders. There’s a section on securing your actual OS and session. Finally, they cover network usage. It mentions using SSH for dynamic forwarding, which we feel is a skill everyone should have. We’ve used it not just for security, but for bypassing brainless bandwidth restrictions too. There’s also the more trick transparent version. Every piece of data you bring with you, you risk losing, so they actually recommend just wiping your iPhone and other devices before attending. It’s important to remember that it’s not just your own data at risk, but everyone/thing you communicate with as well.
I think the best tip I can offer to someone going to a hacker conference is this: Bring a friend. I had never been to a hacker conference before when The Last Hope started coming near, and I wanted to go. Trouble was, none of my friends who were into that sort of thing were in town, and even if they were I doubt any of them would have dropped ~$80 for the event. I then made the mistake of going by myself. I figured I could meet people there to have discussions with, since everyone had more-or-less similar interests. Basically everyone there was one of two types of people. Either they were willing to talk but were somewhat shy and awkward, or they were complete assholes who were very unfriendly and gruff if you tried to talk to them. Additionally, the event staff were complete dicks. I remember one guy wouldn’t let people into an area near the “main stage” even though there was plenty of space and when people didn’t realize and would think they could walk over there to stand, he’d go “WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!!”. A lot of people were angry at this guy and making comments about him. This wasn’t the only guy either, a lot of the event staff were definitely enjoying feeling “superior” at the expense of the convention-goers as they power tripped their way around the Hotel Pennsylvania.
As far as HOPE goes, I think it’s over-hyped. If it was cheaper it wouldn’t be so bad, but as it is it’s just such a high price to pay for spending the day with nerds who can’t function socially IRL.
Posted at 11:19 pm on Dec 25th, 2008 by Anonymous