Any DEFCON groups in or near Toronto, Canada?

[MINDustry]

Are there any of these groups in or near the Toronto area? I saw one for Ottawa and am surprised that there isn't one for Toronto.

[TheCotMan]

http://imgur.com

Are there any of these groups in or near the Toronto area? I saw one for Ottawa and am surprised that there isn't one for Toronto.

Over the last 2 or 3 years, Blakdays has taken over the organization of "DEF CON Groups" and was tasked with modernizing the listings, enforcing activity requirements, so that those DCG that have been inactive for too long, were removed. A new website dedicated just for DEF CON Groups was put up and the new lists of DCG was moved to it:

https://defcongroups.org/dcpages.html#international

A find-on-page for "Canada" or "Toronto" does not show any matches. Same with Ottowa. It is possible those DCG have fallen into disrepair, and inactivity.

If there is no DCG in Toronto, and you would like to start one, this is a great time to start one!

Blakdayz and his team have worked on the FAQ for DCG, and tried to modernize the sign-up process to make it more streamlined and faster than the many months or year it previously took to get new DCG listed.

I am not in control of DCG, or any policies they set. All of the information I provide here is best-effort with they best information I know. If Blakdayz or any of his team contradict what I have included here, please take their word on this.

HTH,
-Cot

[MINDustry]

http://imgur.com

Over the last 2 or 3 years, Blakdays has taken over the organization of "DEF CON Groups" and was tasked with modernizing the listings, enforcing activity requirements, so that those DCG that have been inactive for too long, were removed. A new website dedicated just for DEF CON Groups was put up and the new lists of DCG was moved to it:

https://defcongroups.org/dcpages.html#international

A find-on-page for "Canada" or "Toronto" does not show any matches. Same with Ottowa. It is possible those DCG have fallen into disrepair, and inactivity.

If there is no DCG in Toronto, and you would like to start one, this is a great time to start one!

Blakdayz and his team have worked on the FAQ for DCG, and tried to modernize the sign-up process to make it more streamlined and faster than the many months or year it previously took to get new DCG listed.

I am not in control of DCG, or any policies they set. All of the information I provide here is best-effort with they best information I know. If Blakdayz or any of his team contradict what I have included here, please take their word on this.

HTH,
-Cot

I'm just a beginner considering the culture surrounding hacking. I don't know if I'd be the best person to start a group.

[TheCotMan]

I'm just a beginner considering the culture surrounding hacking. I don't know if I'd be the best person to start a group.

A person does not need to be skilled in all, most, or many forms of hacking to run a DCG. If you primarily are passionate about hacking, and have an unquenchable curiosity and capacity to generate interest among others in topics you find interesting, that is enough to get started.

In the most basic sense, a DCG could be formed with as few as maybe 5 to 10 people, that share curiosity and willingness to do effort and no unique knowledge. Among these people, each can find a topic that interests them, study a topic, and then at the next monthly meeting, discuss what they have learned in a condensed format and reduce the time others might spend to learn the same thing. Each person tackling a separate idea, and reporting back to the group each month is a way to share this knowledge and understanding.

If any of your would-be members have any unique experience, then the effort in research in reduced, as they can describe things they know.

The most difficult problems in running a DCG are:
* Finding topics that interest people enough to attend
* Getting people to demonstrate those topics

What kinds of topics would be useful for the masses as well as people into hacking? (Some suggestions)
* Compare/Contrast various privacy-enhancing technologies (torrent )for filesharing), "hideMyAss", tor or new-comer "DemonSaw" for web browsing, RedPhone/TextSecure/Signal, vs. Silent Circle's "Silent Phone" or "Silent text", etc. for voice and text. These are things that can interest informed members of the public, and media/press
* Pull up a collection of old videos from past DEF CON, and have someone edit multiple presentation down to 5 minutes each -- the act reducing a full hour-long presentation and distill it to 5 minutes can be a very hard task. It can help educate the person doing the presentation on the topic, as they have to understand it well enough to tech it
* Compare and Contract various pre-packages security auditing tools/distros: SecurityOnion, BlackBox, Kali, etc.
* Demonstrate useful tools in a meeting for each specialized tool: wireshark and protocol analysis, Decompilers, Metasploit, burpsuite tools, openvas/nessus, etc. Each of these has enough depth to easily last a full meeting/demo for more than 1 hour.

You can recruit people from UserGroups (Linux/BSD/Windows/Mac User Groups, and computer/programming clubs, colleges/universities, etc.

How did DEF CON start? First one, then two people had a plan to have a party in Las Vegas -- a gathering of people on BBS. One dropped out of the planning, leaving it to one guy, Jeff Moss. Now, around 24 years later, we still have meetings, which have grown organically based on what attendees/members volunteer to offer.

Why not start a DCG where you are and learn what you want?

HTH,
-Cot