DEF CON 26 - My Thoughts and Reflections

I was recently in Las Vegas for DEF CON, the world's largest Hacking Conference (Site, Wikipedia). For four days, 20,000+ nerds descended upon Vegas and put security professionals on edge. It was my first time participating in DEF CON, and it won't be my last.

Over the course of my week in Las Vegas, I caught up with old friends, met new people, learned about the Hacker world, was exposed to novel ideas, had fascinating and thoughtful discussions, lived it up Vegas-style, explored the famous city's culture, and ate too much unhealthy food (*cough* Typical West Coast).

I've been left with a lot to ponder since coming home from DEF CON two weeks ago. It's a lot of ideas that don't necessarily fit well together, and I don't feel that a single post can both maintain readability and properly express my thoughts.

So, I will be writing a series of posts and indexing them from here. Hopefully this structure helps communicate my reflections from DEF CON for your reading pleasure :)

  • My Social Engineering Journey (by the way, SE is a massive risk for your organization)
  • A Newbie's Guide to DEF CON (including a glossary of 'hacker jargon' I picked up)
  • "Participating in" vs "Attending" DEF CON, and why the difference matters
  • Hackers, A Global Community of Rad People
  • The Burden of Duty (a DEF CON inspired follow-on to The Burden of Leadership)

      Thanks for stopping by, and stay tuned! :)