For a third year now, I have attended Black Hat and DEF CON and while Black Hat hasn’t changed all that much – apart from expanding in size and cost of course – DEF CON blew my mind in a way it never had before.
As a proud Security enthusiast, DEF CON is everything. It’s invigorating, exciting and mad all at the same time and this year it was a giant leap forward for the future generation of Cyber.
Always been known for its inclusive community, there was an bigger emphasis on the our next generation.
I saw a 13-year-old boy smash through a social engineering competition by busting his way out of wrist and ankle handcuffs, picking some tough locks (which took grown adults a lot of time), tackling facial recognition, blowing dust strategically on invisible lasers to escape a room and then claiming his crown to the admiration of the onlooking social engineering village.
There was also a drone competition, a junior lock picking contest and in fact, my first interaction was with a kid who showed me how to execute the various hacks on my badge.
It was mind-blowing and I’m not entirely sure if there was a deliberate attempt to move the focus onto the younger generation of Cyber due to our ongoing STEM movement, the Pennsylvanian teen that recently won $3,000,000 through Fortnite or I was obliviously keeping an eye out for it due to recently becoming a father – either way it was fascinating and gave the event an entirely new sense of pride. It also left me questioning how long I have to wait before teaching my 15-month old son how to code?!
Kids aside, I met some exceptional people at DEF CON and Black Hat this year and I can’t wait for the endless coffees, Skype and intergalactic meetings I have scheduled for the next year or so… which should bring me up to 2020 DEF CON where my son might just qualify for a place.
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