Thousands of people attending the world’s largest computer hackers’ meeting in Las Vegas last week were warned not to bring electronics into the conference and to conceal their credit cards. Hackers traded tips, took part in contests, and partied hard.
Government officials were not welcome at the conference this year in protest of the efforts to bring down U.S. National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. Last year there were booths for the FBI and NSA which they used to recruit hackers. This year agents had to attend undercover, prompting hackers to play games of “Spot the Fed.”
The conference name DEF CON derives from a U.S. military term for “Defense Condition” used to describe alert postures in the event of national emergencies. Or it simply refers to the letters on the number three of any telephone, says the organiser of DEF CON named Dark Tangent. This conference has been going on for 21 years and this year attracted about 15,000 people.
each other. © Jordan Keenan/ Motherboard
“An odd-looking bunch”
“They’re an odd-looking bunch,” said Tom Keenan, computer security expert and professor at the University of Calgary. “But the one thing they have in common is that they love technology and they love to kind of probe the limits both of human and computer technology.”
“Don’t take a phone charge from somebody you don’t know,” was one of the warnings Keenan got at the conference. It seems the same cable that sends electricity can also send data. One hacker demonstrated how he could infect a phone and take control of it.
Home automation “easy” to crack
Home automation systems are easy to crack, explained another hacker who tried to tell the manufacturer but was apparently told it would be too expensive to fix the problem.
New televisions equipped with cameras can be remotely hacked to turn on and take pictures of the person watching the TV, said a Korean man who did not want to be identified as he is now working for the company that makes them.
Cities need to be careful of the information they make public, said Keenan in his own presentation. They can unwittingly divulge more information than they intend to and he thinks they should be hiring hackers to check what they post.
People looking to “pick your electronic pocket”
“Even walking down the street, one thing I learned is that there are people looking to pick your electronic pocket, even try(ing) to read your passport, and things like that, remotely. So be suitably cautious about using technology,” warns Keenan.
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