Talk:DEF CON

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Proposed Content[edit]

Thought this page could use a bit more information, over the next few months I'll be contributing the following content; any thoughts?

  • Attendance cost
  • Surge in attendance over the years
    • Section regarding disconnect between larger hacker culture and reality
    • Expansion of hacking onto new topical areas
  • Section for contests & events
    • Quick history of badges
  • Villages
  • Brief mention of volunteer structure
  • DC101
  • DC Groups
  • Mention of forums & IRC
  • Brief mention of workshops and their introduction
  • Hacker kids "rootz"
  • Updated 'notable incidents'
  • Section providing insight into similar conferences (bsides, derby, etc)

Feedback[edit]

Don't believe we need to go into incredibly detail given the information available on the forums and their website, but it's definitely worth bubbling up at a high level. More light hearted topics that could be added would be 'pool on the roof' or 'def con is canceled' - Aghassemlouei (talk) 09:11, 9 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Redundant[edit]

This article is redundant to the one for Defense_Condition.

It's not, it's about something entirely different. Wouter Lievens 16:03, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)
That was posted in September 2003. I'm assuming that at that time, the article was indeed redundant for Defense Condition, so somebody changed it to be about the hacker con instead. Yeah. --Myles Long 17:19, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I wouldn't be caught alive at DEFCON. --Cyberman 20:48, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I'm really proud of you. --Myles Long 15:44, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I wouldn't be caught sober at defcon. --Jack (Cuervo) 30 June 2005 23:00 (UTC)
Amen. —RaD Man (talk) 1 July 2005 01:12 (UTC)

Is that really you RaD man? (does "ansi ACiD mean" anything to you??) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.174.21.27 (talk) 16:51, 25 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Whom[edit]

What about "pool2girl"?

Change the name from def_con to Defcon(convention)[edit]

my understanding was that it is called defcon(it certainly on defcon.org). I'm the reason it was not named defcon was that the name defcon was already taken for defense condition. Why not defcon(convention) or something similar. Ethyr 17:21, 2 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, that would make more sense. Rm999
I agree as well, on their website they refer to it as DEFCON (in all caps), and not 'DEF CON'. --Credema 06:30, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It seems that I was wrong, they appear to use different spellings throughout their website. interchangeably, they will use both DEFCON as well as DEF CON and even Defcon. --Credema 06:59, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I'd prefer Defcon (convention) because DEF_CON just looks ugly. I don't think that's a good enough reason for a rename, though. Oh well. spazure (contribs) 04:47, 16 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Removal of hack the rnc event[edit]

Year unknown One incident involved an attendee who gave a presentation titled "Hack the RNC." On stage, the presenter exhorted attendees to go back to New York and blow up a bus in front of Vice President Dick Cheney and kill members of the Republican party. [1]

"'I thought I would be killed in the rush of people running to the stage to beat the snot out of him,'" Defcon spokesman Priest said of this incident. Meanwhile, out a side door, eight to nine federal agents were 'chomping at the bit for access to the kid to drag him into jail,' he said.

"'They had to take him into custody to protect' him from the Defcon crowd, he said. He wound up serving three years out of a five-year jail sentence.

"'We are a global community, but we are a law-abiding and patriotic community,' said Priest, who himself is a government employee."

This was removed because not only is a distortion of a real event, but the citation is for another story, and the person who posted this couldn't be bothered to do a google search for the year (2002 by the way).

this is what actually happened http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/08/02/1426209

It seems like a rather minor event that has no place in the article. Ethyr 19:53, 9 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The citation was not for another story, it was also for the RNC story-- it mentioned it. It was the source for that story the way it was told.--76.182.88.254 04:03, 16 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

1.^ Cassel, David (4 August 2007). "Transcript: Michelle Madigan's run from Defcon". Tech.Blorge.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-15.
I just checked and it does not mention everything about the rnc. It does not even contain the word rnc. Ethyr 21:13, 19 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It wasn't that article. The original article cited did mention it, but it seems to be gone from the article now.76.182.88.254 21:18, 26 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Links[edit]

Removed link to flickr since none of the pictures seemed relevant (plus anyone can do a search on flickr for defcon if they wanted) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.6.237.252 (talk) 14:44, 10 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Origin of the name "DEF CON"?[edit]

What does "DEF CON" stand for? Or is it meant to be a reference to the defense readiness condition? --75.5.198.24 (talk) 00:44, 26 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Latter. --Gwern (contribs) 05:27 29 January 2008 (GMT)

Law Enforcement[edit]

Is the statement 'Federal law enforcement agents from the FBI, DoD, United States Postal Inspection Service and other agencies regularly attend DEF CON, and are not required to wear identification badges' really relevant? I mean, they also regularly eat lunch at Pizza Hut & don't have to wear identification badges. For that matter, pizza delivery guys attend DEF CON without identifying themselves as pizza delivery guys. It seems I'm missing something, or rather, the article is missing something. This statement should either be expanded on or omitted. Haqui11a (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 23:43, 20 April 2010 (UTC).[reply]

This harkens back to a time when federal law enforcement agents weren't welcomed by computer geeks. Early on feds would go undercover to catch con-goers in criminal acts or admitting to them. This quickly led to the game of "Spot the Fed" which involved pointing out to Priest or one of the Goons someone suspected of being a federal law enforcement officer. Both accuser and accusee would be called up to the stage and the accused would be asked to fess up. If the accusation was right, both would be awarded shirts of "I Spotted the Fed" and "I Am the Fed". Nowadays feds are more commonly found there to learn from and hire the hackers. Frotz (talk) 01:28, 8 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]
As of fairly recently, they still play Spot the Fed. And yes,the NSA does recruit there. Absolutely. They recruit at RSA as well. Elinruby (talk) 17:41, 7 April 2015 (UTCthe

Contests and events[edit]

This section reads like an advertisement for the event Rather than giving facts. It was probably copied from DEF CON's website. 74.195.244.167 (talk) 17:31, 9 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

NSA Defcon recruitment page[edit]

Here is the NSA's DEF CON recruitment page:

I'm not sure what it can add to the article, but here it is. WhisperToMe (talk) 04:36, 14 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Black Hat Association[edit]

Black Hat typically runs the previous week, then a lot of people stay over the weekend for Def Con. Same organizer; some of the more popular Black Hat presentations repeat there. Elinruby (talk) 21:57, 7 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

--

DEF CON & Black Hat have been distancing themselves from one another for quite some time, especially with Black Hat being sold to UBM and DEF CON still being independently run. May want to mention the initial association and some history but not go into too much detail. - Aghassemlouei (talk) 08:19, 12 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Cancellation[edit]

It was recently cancelled. Looks as if it is now history. 2A02:8388:1600:6900:BE5F:F4FF:FECD:7CB2 (talk) 13:29, 13 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

http://defcon.ws/ > Ctrl-U > parody 94.217.12.158 (talk) 20:35, 13 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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Cancellation claims at [http:/defcon.ws][edit]

User:173.226.109.194 is citing an announcement at [1] claiming that Defcon has been cancelled. No news of it on the official site or on the Reddit - so I doubt it.

Until there's an official notice on the main site, please don't edit the article.

KNHaw (talk) 00:11, 23 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Never mind. I just read the following in the site's source code:
Updated for 2016.
Congratulations you found the secret message! You're so smart.
Get over it, this is a parody/joke. This is *satire* not to be confused with my actual beliefs in any way
Apologies that I ripped the art from the actual Defcon page.
Cancellation of Defcon is a loooong running joke. Read the Defcon FAQ.
DT is a really nice guy and he would never say these sorts of things. Or would he?
Nah, I'm sure he wouldn't.
This is not part of a contest - Yawn. Coffee Wars was the only good contest.
This site has been up for a couple years and I haven't changed the "letter". Yet, I think the
satire still rings true, sadly.
If you thought this was mildly funny you can buy me, Gurney, a beer.
If you didn't, sorry no refunds.
Have a good time at Defcon. See you at Paris/Bally's!
Also: BUNNIES FOR PRIEST!!!
Well, I sure fell for it! --KNHaw (talk) 00:35, 23 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]