_________________________________________________________________ Defcon 7 Review _________________________________________________________________ Day 1 On my way getting off the plane, some guys looked at me and shout "Hey she's here for a HACKER convention!!".. I hadn't even mentioned Defcon the entire flight, so I thought it was sp00ky that they knew.. but I didn't worry about it. I just shouted back "HACKERS? WHERE?!?! HACKERS SUCK!!", and proceeded to exit the plane, meet Velvet, and hop a cab over to Alexis Park. The first day, my local bank seemed to dislike the fact that I deposited 1k into my account 3days before the con, so they decided to hold my check, thus leaving me without a room except for the very first day that I had already prepaid.. so I borrow $50 from Velvet (THANX CHICLA~) for my deposit, and have a room -- at least for the first night. On our way to my room... I see someone getting interviewed.. so of course to nail down the fact that I'm finally at tthe con.. I scream "MEDIAWHORE!!!!" as loud as I possibly can. (I later realize that I had just insulted the grand Peter Shipley.. uhmm... shit.. more on this later..) So Velvet & I go to room, unpack a bit of our stuff, and freshen up before the con. Man it was HOT, and my room was as far away from the con as possible.. building 28.. the highest number of the ENTIRE hotel. We survived the heat, however, & proceeded to go to the con. At the con, I actually managed to get in with a check, which I found entirely hilarious.. they didn't even ask for ID with it. Hrmm... must've been suprised when it didn't bounce. I just couldn't ripoff DT .. too many people get into that damn thing free in some way or another anyways.. So Velvie & I manage to get into the con.. we wander around a bit, & get massively bored.. hardly ANYTHING is set up yet, not even Pinguino or 2600's table.. and none of the good talks are going on for a couple hours. This is about the time we realize that I had emailed two people that were going to be my roomates at the con, & told them to meet me at the front desk around noonish.. it's already about 11:30, so we figure heck with it, and hang out by the front desk for roughly an hour. 12:30 rolls around, and we figure TechnoDragon -n- pals found their own rooms somewhere or something, plus we're hungry.. so we make our way over to Hard Rock, to try to track down a friend of Velvie's. We walk in the heat over to the Hard Rock, attempt to page Velvie's friend -- but he's not in. So we call him via courtesy phone, and leave a message; Then we go back to the con, where we get propositioned by some guy passing out condoms. (Long live DoC condoms, I've yet to test one out -- but they have cool packaging) Later I find out this is the same B$tring that's on the back of all the "official" DC7 shirts. ("You get busted, we split your warez"). So he walks off, and five seconds later this other dude comes up to talk to us.. I think his name was Patrick or something.. we all stand there talking for a while, then Velvie (help me out here if you're reading this girl .. I'm getting a bit blurry-headed) & Patrick run off to go do sumtin.. and I proceed to harass people at the DoC booth. Next thing I know, I turn around, and who do I see but SELENA KYLE!!! Many hugs were transferred, and we hung around going to talks & such together. Kevin Poulsen -n- stuff While wandering, Selena & I realize it's about time for the Kevin Poulsen / Jennifer whatsername talk. I sit there for a while, then I realize this Jennifer chiq was basically telling me shit that I had already read posted to the DC-stuff list like months ago .. so I wander off, harassing people at various booths.. then I hear the America's Most Wanted guy's voice talking about Kevin Poulsen over the intercom.. then I suddenly remembered that Kevin Poulsen was going to be talking!! I make my way back through the convention hall, and back into the room with Selena.. just as a big picture of Kevin Poulsen is put on the overhead, and he takes the podium & begins to speak. (Keep in mind folks, I have NEVER seen a picture of Kevin Poulsen or anything aside from cybercrime.net..) Phreaking & PBX Tricks So now it's finally about time for one of the talks, the first talk of the day, as well as one I've been REALLLLLY wanting to see. It's nowhere to be found!! (Phreaking & PBX) We gather at least 20 people trying to find this damn talk, but newbie track a, I swear DT hid it from us just to watch us run around like rats. Selena gets sick of looking for it, and ditches us for the firewall talk... Then I get pulled aside by a very pissed off Peter Shipley & reprimanded on how one should not go around harassing people if they're planning on getting bitten (OK, so I'm paraphrasing -- but the general jist is, Peter seemed to hold some sort of grudge the rest of the con & kept pointing it out every time I passed by him... *sighs*) I have no excuse for my action, all I can say is "my bad", and hope I'm not remembered next year.. But back to the talk.. So I finally find it, and worm my way to the front row & watch the talk. movie, as well as named, so anyone watching would know what those neat devices people were using were called.. as for option #2.. come on. I'm not a phreaker by any means.. all I've done is cheezy beige boxing, some carding in my younger days, and the cocot 800# trick.. big whoop.. and *I* knew what a coupler is.. so that was the Phreaking/PBX talk. The talk itself was interesting for a good while.. aside from the annoying overusage of the word "hypothetically", it was quite informative as far as giving out info on the new millenium payfones -n- such. However, now here's the kicker.. during the Q&A part, some kid asks "Hey is there a way I can hook my laptop up to a payfone to dialout?" .. he didn't ask if there was some way to do it via messing with wires, he just asked was there any way at all.. this is about the point where I ALMOST bite my tongue.. instead of screaming, I just respond under my breath .. "yeah hun, it's called a coupler, and was invented most likely before either of us were even BORN..". This gets a few chuckles from people sitting near me. But what I'm getting at is this: People find out about Defcon mostly through one of two mediums.. either 1> They loved the movie hackers, and found the link to defcon from the "hacked" Hackers site.. or 2> They're in the scene. Now via option #1, acoustic couplers were used IN the After Gh0st's talk, I leave post-haste trying to get to the Oracle Hacking 101 talk (man, my job requires me to setup oracle on dozens of machines a day .. I *had* to learn more about this shit..).. and who do I run into, but TECHNODRAGON!!! We converse briefly, then I ditch him while promising to talk later so I can get to the Oracle talk. On my way to the Oracle talk, I run into Selena and I *think* Patrick (it was either patrick or B$tring.. I kept getting the name/face combo confused..), and we all go to the Oracle talk. Oracle Hacking 101 In a word: BORING. This guy talked in nothing but a monotone, and didn't really tell anything about "hacking" at all. No security holes, no neat tricks, nothing. Everything he talked about seemed like it had come directly out of the INDEX to Oracle for Dummies. About the ONLY useful information I managed to gather were a few SQL statements pertaining to DBA's, & the default logins.. The rest of the day .. That's about all of the "interesting" talks for the first day. So I wander around.. start walking to my room, and run into .. my favorite phreak from the con last year. (If you have no idea who I'm talking about, read my review for DC7) We wander around, and finally scrounge up the VCD for American Pie, and go watch it in Velvet's room .. _________________________________________________________________ More to come.. until then .. READ THIS!!! Selena Kyle -- I love you chicla, thx for the talk re: that guy that's not from toronto / my furby. Dark Cube -- What can I say? I love you man ... B$String -- Yo get back with me, I gotta talk to you about what we talked about .. Zhixel -- Did I spell that right? Dude you're quiet, but cool.. drop me a line. Peter Shipley -- I'm sorry man, but I suppose I'll always be a k1dd13 to you now. *sighs* TechnoDragon -- Thx for the Afri-Cola. You da man. KP2 -- You're a smart kid.. keep it up man. Velvet -- I KNEW IT!!! YOU'RE A BOT!!! _________________________________________________________________ All I can think of for the moment.. I'll have a review and mention everyone (I know, that is) .. soon. later. _________________________________________________________________