As you are reading this, I am in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada, attending the annual computer security conference known as “Defcon” for the fourth year in a row. Oddly billed as “the largest underground hacking event in the world,” Defcon is always attended by an intriguing mixture of people, including computer professionals and amateurs, manufacturers and vendors, all branches of the U.S. government and military, political activists, and yes, even creepy, scary “hackers.”
In the early days of computing, those involved routinely called each other “hackers,” which simply meant that you had a desire to experiment, learn and perhaps figure out how to make your equipment perform tasks for which it was not originally designed. The computer industry as we now know it was founded by hackers who were willing to constantly push the envelope in pursuit of the ultimate computing experience. Thanks to an ill-informed news media looking to label malicious computer activity, the term “hacker” has now come to define computer criminals up to no good. But, it wasn’t always that way; Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, and Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer were both happy to be known as “hackers.” Computer criminals were called “crackers.”
Coming from around the world, most Defcon attendees are here to learn. Many, like myself, do not consider themselves to be super-elite computer geniuses, but rather, are looking for information to at least keep themselves in the race. The field of computer security is constantly evolving, and there’s no better place to get a quick crash course in the latest techniques used by the black hats and the white hats. With seminars such as “The Hacker’s Guide to Search and Arrest,” “Visual Security Event Analysis,” and “Meet the Fed (featuring representatives from the DOD, IRS, GAO, USPS, FBI and NSA),” there’s something here for everyone. There’s even a constantly running game among the attendees called “Spot the Fed,” in which one can win a free t-shirt by exposing the identity of someone suspected of working for the U.S. government!
“The Feds” (as they are affectionately known) are present to spy on the underground bad guys, to learn from the white-hat hackers and corporate security professionals, and to recruit. Faced with an overwhelming flood of illicit computer activity, the Feds recruit from all groups, including the “black hats.” They are especially interested in “turning from the dark side” those amateur hackers who break into computer systems and networks, not so much for financial gain, but rather for the challenge of “beating the system.” In this regard, the Feds have taken an attitude of, “if you can’t beat ’em, hire ’em!” They are often successful when on-the-fringe hackers realize that their hacking hobby can earn them the same prison sentence as a member of the Russian Mafia. The hackers frequently decide that the risks of beating the system for fun are just too great.
And then there are the guys like me, who are just trying to figure out how to get those nasty viruses out of your Grandma’s computer!