Gallery: DefCon: 20 Years of Hackers, Hijinks and Snooping Feds
01hackers-on-board-2
In 1992, former hacker Jeff Moss invited a bunch of hacker friends he'd met primarily on electronic bulletin boards to come to Las Vegas to party in the desert. That party grew into a legendary conference that's become one of the premiere gatherings for hackers from around the world - as well as for undercover intelligence agents who want to spy on them (or recruit them). More than 7,000 hackers and security professionals attend annually. Other hacker conferences have tried to copy DefCon's secret sauce throughout the years, but none have been able to match its successful mix of smart talks, organized chaos and hearty parties. Next month, DefCon will celebrate its 20th year, by bringing back some of the original speakers that made year one so special. ### Hackers on Board Jeff Moss (third from left in second row) packed into a VW with his band of happy hacker friends in Las Vegas during the first year of the DefCon hacker conference. *Photo courtesy of DefCon*
02dead-addict-and-friends-2
### Dead Addict and Friends Dead Addict (center), a mainstay of DefCon, is one of the few hackers who has been with the conference from year one when he helped founder Jeff Moss organize the first gathering and secure the participation of Arizona Assistant Attorney General Gail Thackeray to speak to the hackers following her work on the notorious Operation Sun Devil case. *Photo courtesy of DefCon*
03humans-in-the-house
### Humans in the House DefCon attendees, known as Humans, are identified by their badges, which have become increasingly more creative each year thanks to Joe Grand and others who have designed them. This one is from DefCon 17 in 2009. *Photo: Dave Bullock*
04capture-the-flag
### Capture the Flag Capture the Flag, a digital version of King of the Hill, is the core contest at DefCon, which pits teams of hackers against one another in a battle to gain root on a networked box and fight off adversaries who would unseat them. Teams often work round-the-clock throughout the conference, never leaving their computers for long. Here, a team from Korea (South Korea, natch, not North) works its strategy to gain a lead on other players. *Photo: Dave Bullock*
Dave Bullock05hackers-on-a-train
### Hackers on a Train There's no better way to get publicity for your DefCon talk than to have someone file a lawsuit to prevent you from giving it. In 2008, three undergrads from MIT earned this honor after the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority ill-advisedly went to court to [stop them from talking about security vulnerabilities](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/08/injunction-requ/) in the MBTA's payment cards. A hacker's best friend, otherwise known as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, stepped in to help the students fight a temporary restraining order, but failed to get it lifted before the scheduled talk. Instead, the students (pictured at left, with EFF's Kurt Opsahl at podium) spent their allotted conference time talking about why they couldn't talk. The federal judge, in her ruling approving the restraining order, [said that giving the proposed speech would be the equivalent of hacking a computer](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/08/eff-to-appeal-r/), leaving legal experts and hackers everywhere scratching their heads. *Photo: Dave Bullock*
06dateline-mole-3
### Dateline Mole It's a boring con if there isn't at least one media scandal at DefCon each year. In 2007, the drama came courtesy of Dateline NBC when the TV show [sent an undercover mole to DefCon](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/threatlevel/2007/08/media-mole-at-d/) with a hidden camera in her purse — a violation of conference rules. The hackers got their revenge, however, when the mole, a young Dateline producer named Michelle Madigan, was publicly outed and shamed. When the conference organizers directed a spotlight on her chair during one of the speaking sessions, Madigan jumped up in surprise and fled the room. A slew of photographers pursued her to her car. *Photo: Dave Bullock*
07hackers-with-mohawks-2
### Hackers with Mohawks The mohawk booth at DefCon raises money each year for the hacker-friendly Electronic Frontier Foundation to help the group continue the good fight for civil and digital liberties. *Photo: Dave Bullock*
Dave Bullock08worlds-most-hostile-network
### World's Most Hostile Network Who better to secure a network operation center than a band of hackers best capable of cracking it? The NOC at DefCon, set up each year by the conference goons, a group of dedicated volunteers, has to be robust enough to withstand the endless pounding of traffic from thousands of hackers glued to their machines for four days. Here the router and firewall are physically secured behind a chainlink fence, lock and 24-hour armed guard to keep out any miscreants who might want to mess with them. *Photo: Dave Bullock*
09dark-tangent
### Dark Tangent Former hacker Dark Tangent, aka Jeff Moss, has come a long way since he launched DefCon 20 years ago to gather together the hacker friends he'd met on electronic bulletin boards. Today the former phone phreaker hobnobs with intelligence chiefs and top Washington bureaucrats through his position on the [Homeland Security Advisory Council](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/hacker-dark-tangent-joins-dhs-security-council/) and his job as chief security officer for ICANN. *Photo courtesy of Jeff Moss*
10password-protected-briefs
### Password-Protected Briefs Like all conferences, DefCon has a vendor room where merchants hawk everything from lock-picking tools to hacker-inspired underwear. *Photo: Dave Bullock*
11out-of-ervice
### Out of $ervice DefCon hackers have a long-term love affair with Las Vegas ATMs. Their penchant for toying with the machines is so well-known that hotels hosting the conference sometimes take their ATMs out of service for the duration of the con. In 2009, someone boldly placed a rogue ATM outside the hotel's security office to steal banking credentials from unsuspecting users. The machine's malicious purpose was discovered after a conference attendee noticed something strange about a smoked-glass window on the front of the device and shone a flashlight through it. Instead of seeing a surveillance camera behind the glass, he saw a PC that was siphoning card data from anyone who used the machine.
12like-sheep-to-slaughter
### Like Sheep to Slaughter If you're dumb enough to use the wireless network at DefCon, and even dumber to use it without encryption, then you deserve to find yourself on the Wall of Sheep, where each year security pros and newbies alike find their sniffed passwords displayed on a screen (partially redacted, of course, to prevent anyone else from using them). *Photo: Dave Bullock*
13network-ninjas
### Network Ninjas The most highly coveted party invites at DefCon each year have been for the Ninja Networks and Caezar's Challenge parties. Four years ago, the two teamed up to combine resources for one big blow-out party each year, with Ninja Networks designing the party badge to get in. This one, from 2010, was one of the best. It included a [wireless interactive game](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/defcon-ninja-badge/) that allowed badge-holders in proximity of one another to battle it out like ninjas. *Photo: Dave Bullock*
14if-the-fbi-can-do-it-so-can-we
### If the FBI Can Do It, So Can We Security researcher Chris Paget (not pictured) [demonstrated his home-brewed IMSI catcher](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/intercepting-cell-phone-calls/) in 2010, with 3-foot-long RF directional antenna to amplify its signal in the large DefCon conference room. The device works similarly to ones that law enforcement and intelligence agencies use to masquerade as a legitimate base station and trick cell phones into routing their outbound calls through them. Paget's device, which cost about $1,500 to make, is able to intercept calls and record content. *Photo: Dave Bullock*
15badge-of-honor
### Badge of Honor Once DefCon attendee badges began incorporating chips and circuits, it was inevitable that people would hack them. Here, badge designer Joe Grand sports the winning entry in the 2009 hack-the-badge contest -- a whimsical badge-powered hat with Ethernet cable and LED lights [designed to thwart facial recognition systems](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/hacking-the-defcon-17-badges/). *Photo: Dave Bullock*
16lockpick-village
### Lockpick Village Lockpicking is to hacking what beer drinking is to tailgating. Lockpicking's role in hacker culture goes back to the early years when students at MIT used to pick the locks of the computer room at night to get more computing time with the university's mainframes. *Photo: Dave Bullock*
17wireless-act
### Wireless Act DefCon's wireless network, billed as [the most hostile network on the planet](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/inside-the-worlds-most-hostile-network/), consists of 50 wireless access points, each on its own virtual local area network, or VLAN. The access points are placed at ceiling level and are accessed via a catwalk at the Rio Hotel where the conference now takes place. Hotel lore has it that the catwalk was once used to spy on poker players during card tournaments. *Photo: Dave Bullock*
18defcon-by-design
### DefCon by Design One of the first sketches for the DefCon logo. *Photo courtesy of DefCon*
Dave Bullock19i-spotted-a-fed-at-defcon-and-married-her
### I Spotted a Fed at DefCon, and Married Her A novel take on DefCon's annual Spot-the-Fed contest had Andrew Fried, a former special agent with the Department of Treasury who has attended DefCon for years, and Laura Askey, also with Treasury, get married in a short ceremony before more than 4,000 hackers and Feds at the close of the awards ceremony in 2007. Here they are, with their two witnesses behind them, as they listen to Rev. William Petersen (not pictured). *Photo: Dave Bullock*
20badge-powered-flying-machine
### Badge-Powered Flying Machine As DefCon badges have become more sophisticated, with built-in chips and digital displays, attendees have tried their hand at hacking the badges to broaden their usefulness. Pictured here is a dirigible that one attendee built, which is powered by his badge. *Photo: Dave Bullock*
21medeco-madness
### Medeco Madness Medeco has long maintained that its high-security locks, found in places like the White House, the Pentagon and embassies around the world, are unhackable. That's a claim Marc Weber Tobias and his band of lock crackers easily debunked in a 2008 DefCon demonstration [using plastic keys crafted from credit cards and Shrinky Dink](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/08/medeco-locks-cr/) kits. *Photo: Dave Bullock*
22lifetime-hacking-award
### Lifetime Hacking Award Each year on the final day of DefCon, Uber badges are handed out to the top winners of all the contests conducted at the conference. Uber badges give the holder a lifetime of free admission to DefCon. *Photo: Dave Bullock*
23major-malfunction-2
### Major Malfunction Major Malfunction (aka security consultant Adam Laurie), one of the lead goons at DefCon who helps keep the conference and its network running smoothly, holds a skateboard deck signed by all of the goons at DefCon18. *Photo: Dave Bullock*
