this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2024
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Privacy
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That's kind of silly honestly. I can see where they are coming from but the people at the conference are the good guys. If I were them I would get some of those security professionals to give suggestions on how to have better security. Also random room checks aren't going to catch anything. Anyone who wants to cause harm isn't going have such bad opsec. You will end up catching people with legitimate and highly dangerous stuff like routers, network switches and vacuum cleaners
Just FYI, you need very little skill to clone the WiFi access gateway of a hotel WiFi, and then blast their SSID from your router, to lure close guests into your honeypot. Once people are on your malicious gateway, the fun starts.
In a hotel with hundreds of hackers on alcohol, it's not unlikely for people to fuck around.
There is also no requirement to be a "good guy" to attend the conference.
Correct. But it's kind of the inevitable outcome that only "good guys" attend. Why would any bad actor go there and risk being exposed / caught...
Defcon is a useful resource for networking and learning. It being run by and for good guys doesn't mean bad guys don't find the event useful. The vague risk of "getting caught" is probably worth taking, regardless of whether that risk is tangible, especially if they follow proper security practices.
In short, untreated mental illness
Isn't also a game at defcon to spread a harmless package to as many devices as possible?
Hopefully that would get flagged. If you start broadcasting that will show up under rouge ap detection
Right. And then they locate it and search the rooms nearby. Exactly what their disclaimer is about
Why would someone bring their own vacuum cleaner in a hotel room?
The automatic vacuum cleaners have lots of security issues and are often a common target at blackhat
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