undercover at a hacker convention (DefCon)

I went to DefCon 32 in Las Vegas as a non hacker or cyber security person and guess what? I didn't get hacked shocker oh em geeeeeeeee. Let's talk Defcon, little broll, protecting your accounts, room checks, and badge code drama.

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[vibrantchill]

There are a ton of "ethical hackers" and they make GOOD money. A lot of hacking is actually done with the purpose of improving systems. Ethical hackers are hired by companies to poke holes in their cyber security system so they know how they can strengthen defenses. I would honestly say the minority of hackers are malicious lol

[hellohologram]

In regards to furries and hacking, it reminds me of that photo with all the furries on an airplane where someone replied, ‘I object to that many Furries being on the same airplane because if there were an accident it could basically cripple the American IT industry in an instant.’

[ellie]

Lockpicking is a fun hobby, what's more interesting is how terrible most locks are. Lockpicking Lawyer shows so many broken in 30seconds

[ecoonrad]

The people thinking the FBI were going to show up and shut it down is kinda funny to me considering its the 32nd one, like if it was going to go down I think some 3 letter agency would've put a stop to the con by now

[supersat]

The major issue with the room searches is what they were looking for. Not guns, but "hacking tools." This included soldering irons, breadboards, USB drives, routers, etc. It's like they don't understand what the actual threats are.

The other issue is that they were doing more thorough searches, by hotel security, only in rooms booked through the official DEF CON block. That's not cool.

DEF CON will likely have an official statement about this soon, since they did have an official room block with Resorts World.

[DieAlteistwiederda]

Honestly being more worried about kpop stans than hackers is just logical to me. I don't know why hackers would ever hurt me specifically why even breathing wrong could already make me the target of a bunch of kpop stans in a second. The average hacker will never be out to get me specifically. Kpop stans are way scarier to me.

[Aquerticus]

In my expirience furries tend to be very online people so its not that crazy that a lot of them end up getting interested in computer In the same way a lot of furries end up getting into animation and stuff, the amount of furries that work in animated movies is staggering.

[pixitje]

Hey! I'm a cultural anthropologist and you're doing my dream job/what I wanted to be doing before I became disabled! I specifically focused on subcultures (so many papers for school written about furries and Japanese fashion) and alternative sexual lifestyles.
You're absolutely right that you should go get that degree bc you're already making so many great insights and you just...have that vibe already!

I just started watching your channel, and it's really tickling my brain with everything that I love about anthropology and research.

If you ever want to chat about the overlap of this stuff and anthropology, feel free to contact me! Thanks for doing what you're doing!

[nicksfurry]

I’m not a hacker but I write code for a living - Furries and hackers (and software engineers) have such large overlaps in part because they’re all highly online activities! Computers really enable the furry fandom to connect and when you’re spending a lot of time on the computer it’s pretty natural to branch out into other areas!

[Montgomerygolfgator]

I know a few people in the hacking scene, and they are the kind of people who would skim your card, then immediately tell you they were able to and show you how to protect yourself. Then show you they deleted your information. Black hats inside the US, are kinda anti-establishment punk, not evil. The kinds that do malicious things to normal people are a very small hated sect of mostly state-sponsored hackers.

[ii_r_ftw]

For the security defcon was probably the most secure convention you will go to since walking next to you is all the people that design and test the actual security setups for everywhere else. having bag checks and metal detectors would just make it a game of what ridiculous thing you can get past security. And the idea of the FBI/CIA/NSA/TLA shutting it down is hilarious given they regularly send agents to see the current state of civilian security and do recruiting.

[krisatris]

I am learning I am amanda's worst nightmare because I went to defcon in 2022 directly after going to a loona concert 😭

[GothicPhantomZero]

The fact that US's information was hacked, you went to a hacker convention, and your sponsor helps protect from hackers. Feels like a trifecta of impossible odds and it amuses me.

[Greenteabook]

As a former resident of Las Vegas two times over, *_don't move to Las Vegas_*
If you don't like feeling like a neighbor to Hell for 2/3 of the year and freezing your ass off for the last 3rd, its not a place for you.
I remember frying an egg in my front yard as a kid in the 90s, and the torrential downpour and flash flood that *ripped* my neighbor's front yard out and washed it down the street.
Last year all of my outside plants froze, even the cacti 😭

[teddymasters]

You know, I was recently listening to someone talk about defcon (Luke from wan show), and I genuinely thought to myself "huh, it would be interesting to see swell talk about this. but she probably wouldn't go to that." I won't underestimate you again.

[Antimuffin]

It's so interesting to hear an outsider's perspective on this. By the way the photo thing isn't because people are doing something wrong it's because every single person who works in security is paranoid as heck. They all know way too much about how social engineering is done to ever put themselves in that position.

[FeelingMimsy]

The reason there weren't constant security scans and bag checks at the event? Hackers understand the pointless stupidity of security theater.

[emilyweaver]

I used to be a hotel housekeeper (in Washington state) and we were told that guests had a right to privacy in the hotel basically equal to what they would have in a rented apartment. We specifically had this conversation around 2016/2017 when ICE crackdowns were happening, and we were told not to give any information about guests to the authorities (or anyone else) or divulge who was staying in what room unless they showed us a court order. So i would be really surprised if room searches like this are legal, although maybe things have changed or are different in Nevada.

[endingwithali]

!!! I would have flipped if I saw you at DEF CON ! I didnt know you were going to be there. I just want to give HUGE props for your representation of hackers - not trying to sensationalize and demonize the community instead explain the dichotomy, and still be respectful.

A few points to clarify for those reading comments and want to understand more:

- DEF CON is not considered an industry conference. Sure, there are definitely industry sponsored things and are industry sponsors, but this is a community conference. this definitely leads to a different vibe.

- LOCATION: this was the first year DEF CON was in the LVCC - it was contracted to happen at caesar's forum but there was a falling out of the contract (no one knows why). they probably had to scramble a lot of the convention functionality together to fit the old ways and function in general because of the newness of everything. tbh if you, swell, had gone other years, you would have had a much different experience. You probably would have talked about how crowded the hallways felt LOL

- GOONS + SECURITY: goons are volunteers for the conference, including volunteers who's entire job is to do literal physical security for the event. (they're called soc goons). Part of their responsibility is to remove unwanted attendees, etc. So, removing the badge person from the stage is part of their duties. It's not easy to become a DEF CON volunteer - it requires a few years of attending in general + becoming deeply familiar with the community - so those roles are taken very seriously.

- BAGS + SECURITY: just discussing Bag checking at def con would be highly charged with a lot of debate and community unrest - i think it's one of those things thats just not really discussed. DEF CON has dealt with bomb threats in the past, publicly. There was one at last year's event too. However, if there is anywhere in the world where these issues are well planned for and prepared for, it would be at a def con. the attendees aren't just computer focused too, but also physical security focused, security operations, etc. I can say with confidence they have plans in place in case of major issues.

- "PISHING" - there's probably comments about this, but "PHISHING" is pronounced "fishing" not "pishing"

- FURRIES + the side cons - def con has "side cons" too. They're not full fledged conventions like def con, but more like people getting together in a hotel suite they rent out and talk about their interests in combination with hacking. So the furry one is literally called FURCON. There are others too that exist, but these side cons are more like you get invited by someone who knows about it, some are extremely notorious (like furcon, gothcon, queercon, etc), its really a IYKYK kind of thing... like most things at def con tbh LOL

I cant remember what else i wanted to say, but i did watch this entire video + react to it on my own stream (as a content creator focused in tech and cyber security who has attened many def cons) and we really enjoyed watching it!


thanks for covering it!

[leftonya]

Everyone is undercover at hacker conventions. Most of them are white hat hackers, some are black hat hackers, you are a chaos gremlin grey hat hacker