DEF CON in the news

[LosT]

Re: DEF CON in the news

Yeah, but this isn't the first time there has been an SE contest... *smirk*

[TheCotMan]

Re: DEF CON in the news

Yay. Yet another collision for the word "DEFCON":

Usenix provides peak under hood of event processing security

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This week at the Usenix conference ... researchers discussed their work on balancing the needs of high-speed event processing and information security. They call their system "DEFCon," for "Decentralized Event Flow CONtrol."
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A goal is to avoid event unit objects that have references to each other. Instead they have reference only to objects "controlled by DEFCon."
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It is hard to do the secure process isolation, have a quick system, and use basic Java skills. Enter the DEFCon API.

The U.K researchers did not have to call their system DEFCon, but who can blame them? "DEFCON," among other things, happens to be the U.S. DoD's designation for the defense readiness condition of the U.S. military. It is not for sure that DEFCon 1 has ever been used, but it is certain that many a feature film has "gone to DEFCON 1," just before a few thrilling bits where Martians, Vin Diesel, or Steven Segal blow up or save the world. Also for certain: a few more APIs will come this way to enable the event processing tools for wider use.

[TheCotMan]

Re: DEF CON in the news

EFF Contest: "who can get more money for us" closeswith final results in news story:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/06...-final-results

[DJ Jackalope]

Re: DEF CON in the news

Ninja Badge:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...n-ninja-badge/

ATM Hacking (from BH)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Bunker...35708.html?x=0

Cell Phone Interception talk / Chris Paget is scheduled to give a talk on cellphone insecurity:
http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=9651

[BlackOrchid]

Re: DEF CON in the news

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/p...s,1398205.html
core Security

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66T52O20100730
Android Hack released

[TheCotMan]

Re: DEF CON in the news

Lock Picking Popularity Growing=URL1

Posted by John Sawyer, Sep 24, 2010 04:41 PM
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One of the always-popular areas during DEF CON is the lock picking village where attendees can try their hand at picking locks of all types.
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There has been an entire community that has sprung up from lock picking into what is called "locksport,"...
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The first was the release of "Practical Lock Picking: A Physical Penetration Tester's Training Guide" by Deviant Ollam...
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The other project was by Schuyler Towne who created the Kickstarter project called "Lockpicks by Open Locksport."
...

Mostly about locksport and topics related to lockpicking/bypass at Defcon.

[TheCotMan]

Re: DEF CON in the news

URL1

New Un-Hackable System, (c2) Will Provide U.S. Cyber Command with a Solution to Escalating Cyber Attacks
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“Through (c2) we will be able to offer a permanent solution and nuke the problems related to cyber-attacks once and for all," said Ferenc Ledniczky, co-founder and President of Hun Technology Inc.

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“Because the current software architecture is hackable by design, it simply cannot be made completely safe,” said Ferenc Ledniczky underlining what other industry experts have already confirmed.

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“...original programs and operating systems were not designed with today's security and confidentiality issues in mind,” noted Jeff Moss, founder of Black Hat and DEF CON during the organization’s computer security conference in Las Vegas, Nevada earlier this year.

See full story at URL above for full text.

If you want to start a discussion about this, copy/paste into new thread in community talk. If you provide intelligent commentary on the news story and reflection on the claims, I or another mod will move it to the "Value Added News" forum for continued discussion.

[TheCotMan]

Re: DEF CON in the news

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20...?oref=topstory

Story about Defcon event(s), feds, recruitment at Defcon and more. Not as much of a fluff piece as we usually see from journalists focusing on "the weird" without context. It is a longer read than usual, too.

[TheCotMan]

Re: DEF CON in the news

Hackers are looser to visiting trusted sites

Hackers at the Black Hat and DefCon security conferences have revealed a serious flaw in the way Web browsers weed out untrustworthy sites and block anybody from seeing them.
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The attack was demonstrated by three hackers. Independent security researcher Moxie Marlinspike presented alone, while Dan Kaminsky, with Seattle-based security consultancy IOActive Inc., and security and privacy researcher Len Sassaman presented together.
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Jeff Moss, founder of the Black Hat and Defcon conferences who this summer was appointed to the Homeland Security Department's advisory council, said the fact a hacker has to actually break into a victim's network for the attack to work can limit its usefulness.
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Follow link for full story.

Strange that this "story" is just being dated today, when Defcon was several months ago. Somehow, I think there is something wrong with the claimed date for this story. The source link for this story is cited as
this url which has a claimed post date of October 27, 2010, still 2 months after Defcon.

[TheCotMan]

Re: DEF CON in the news

Mobile developers challenged to boost privacy

ACLU leads the development competition, which seeks to address security on smartphones
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a competition for mobile application developers to address privacy concerns about mobile phones and other portable devices.
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Contest submissions will be received at the Develop for Privacy website until May 31, 2011. A contest winner will be announced in August at an event in Las Vegas coinciding with Defcon and Black Hat security conferences. Whoever makes the best overall submission will be given the opportunity to discuss the application with the audience and judges at the ceremony.
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Follow link for full story.

I am not sure what this means. It suggests there will be an announcement in front of the audience of Defcon or BlackHat or both, but the word "coinciding" is often used to mean, "concurrent and in parallel," more than, "as a part of" (think bsides, and you might understand what i mean.) Also favoring this question of it being "part of" Defcon and BlackHat, it would be strange to have the winner announced in two different presentations one or more days apart. I'm probably missing something.

[ButterSnatcher]

Re: DEF CON in the news

From what i gather from that article is that you submit ahead of time and then they review and an event that is similar timing as defcon and blackhat they will announce a person. Thats the way it seems to me though. It's definitely i believe a great approach towards mobile security.

[Thorn]

Re: DEF CON in the news

DT is mentioned in The Economist last week, in his DHS adviser role, talking about dissidents using homemade directional antennas to circumvent oppressive governments shutting down internet and mobile-phone networks.

http://www.economist.com/node/18386151

[TheCotMan]

Re: DEF CON in the news

An article on codegate mentions "DEF CON" as a comparison:

URL1

White-hat hackers offer protection
Codegate highlights the best protection methods against cybercrimes
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Codegate kicked off its two-day run yesterday morning at Coex in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul.
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Eight teams that won the preliminary round last month have been engaging in various computer security assignments since 10 a.m. yesterday. The winners will be announced this morning.

Four of the teams are from Korea, two are from the U.S., one is from Japan and another is from Sweden. Some 720 teams from 57 countries took part in the preliminary round.
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Codegate is one of several contests and conferences for computer security in Korea.

There is also the Hacking Defense Contest, hosted by the Korea Communications Commission, and the Information Security Conference, hosted by Ministry of Public Administration and Security.

Their international counterparts are DEF CON, the world’s largest hacker convention in Las Vegas, and Black Hat, which also takes place in Las Vegas.
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By Kim Hyung-eun [hkim anATsymbol joongang aDOTsymbol co aDOTsymbol kr][

[TheCotMan]

Re: DEF CON in the news

An article on "How do you begin an information security career?"

URL1:

How do you begin an information security career?
By Israel Bryski, board member, N.Y. Metro ISSA chapter
Apr 5, 2011 10:46 AM
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* Join an information security organisation. (...)
* Find a mentor. (...)
* Go to conferences. There are such events throughout the year that take place all over the world. RSA Conference, Black Hat, Defcon, ShmooCon, SOURCE and AusCERT in May on the Gold Coast. It is also a great venue to meet likeminded individuals and broaden your network with folks from the information security community.
* Read books. (...)
* Get certified. (...)
...

(Putting Defcon in bold was done by me and was not in the original article.)

[LosT]

Re: DEF CON in the news

CODEGATE tries really hard to associate themselves with DEFCON....

I'll reserve comment...

(Yes meaning is implied via this post, do some math....)