DEFCON: The Documentary Page #4

It used to be we shouldn't have even called it the vendor area.

There were a couple of years, and I

can't blame anybody but myself for this,

where it should have been called the

"buy your t-shirts room." The only thing

that was for sale in there was t-shirts.

You had 2 hardware vendors

and 33 t-shirt vendors.

Hackers love their t-shirts. In a weird

way, it's like a way to kind of express

your identity.

I think we all do that through our shirts.

It's a way when you're

walking down the hall at DEF CON or any

other conference or at work or wherever

for people to kind of get

an idea of who you are.

So yeah, I mean the T-shirt aspect

of it is certainly important.

This is the one place I can

wear all my T-shirts...

and people will know what it is.

- Yeah, people get it.

There's something about that

like, cinematic hacker.

That's both goofy and inspiring and...

Like I still play up... There's

this mystery around it.

Oooh, Spooky Hackers... and, like

there's this dark side to it..

And I still think I play

that up in the art.

That I'm still intrigued... I still

don't know all of what's going on...

Like, I'm a maker... I'm not a hacker.

So, I was a goon the first year and

they stuck me in the info booth.

And then, about half way through the first

day Russ came over first and said...

"Hey I want you to draw on my badge..."

We had great big badges

that Joe Grand did...

...and so I drew on it and then...

Pyro came over and said

"Hey, draw on my badge."

And then in like 10 minutes

there was this line

out the door of people

like "Draw on my badge.."

and so Russ came up with the idea...

"Well, if you're going

to draw on the badge...

"Why don't you make them give $5 to

EFF for every badge you draw on.

And raise some money."

So, like, laptops I'd

charge $20 for EFF...

and then it ended up with a pile of

money for EFF like the first year.

So then the second year they said "You're

not going to be in the info booth."

"You're going to have A booth and sell

art and draw on things for people

"to raise money for EFF." And

that's how that took off so...

You have to believe in

what you're doing...

and you have to believe

that whatever you have

is the hottest, coolest,

newest, best thing...

and that if you have any shred of

doubt about what you're presenting...

or if your hearts not 100 percent into it, the

audience is going to pick up on that right away.

And... tune out.

That's the thing, I think the B.S. filter

here at DEF CON is very, very strong.

I think the talks and the

speeches are absolutely important

because it gives the world an opportunity

for a very inexpensive price

to be able to go learn from the absolute

best in the world in this industry

about the absolute bleeding

cutting edge of technology...

It was between 300 and 400 submissions

that came in for people that

wanted to speak at DEF CON this year.

Yeah, it was a rough, rough year just because

of the number of quality submissions...

There were some that any other year

absolutely would have been accepted...

I think because this is the 20th DEF

CON and it's because people want to be

a part of DEF CON 20... we got

so many more submissions.

And so many more quality submissions...

DEF CON speakers are all different types. Especially this year you have...

you have generals, and you have 15 year old kids...

all of whom have something

different to contribute.

There's not really one thing you can

say that unites a DEF CON speaker...

except for their desire to present

their ideas to an audience.

And we've got a really cool V.I.P.

this year... Yup... Really Cool.

They better show up.

The big celebrity speaker V.I.P.

for this year at DEF CON,

The director of the NSA and

director of cyber command

General Alexander.

We've been trying to get

somebody from the NSA

high level to speak for... 10 years.

And it just so happens that

we finally get somebody.

And it just happens to be our

20th year anniversary so...

the timing just works out really well.

And I know people are going to get

all bent in a knot over it...

It's going to be like the

love-hate relationship...

They're also going to be really

interested in what he has to say...

and at the same time be

really fearful of the NSA.

It's a milestone to see someone

of his position and level

come here and speak about security and

hackers and those types of things.

Jeff Moss made a valid call

and he kind of said...

"Look, you know, we have to interact

with these people." you know.

We have the technical skills and

they're the ones calling the shots.

So we've got to interact with them.

And at the end of the day...

we've got to educate them. Ya know?

Helloooo DEF CON!

Something I try to do

with DEF CON is I want to

expose you guys, from

the very first DEF CON,

to people you don't normally see like...

I'm sure you guys just don't

hang out and have coffee with

the General and, neither do I

so to me it's really eye opening to

understand the world from their view.

Having the NSA here was a great

unveiling of the support

and I think a little bit of

appreciation from the government

towards our community now, and a

little bit more understanding

of the work we do, and the actual end goals

of what we are trying to accomplish here.

Thank you...

It's an honor to be here.

It's an honor and a privilege

to be here.

You know, one of the things

I want to talk about

is the Freedom domain. The Internet.

And what we can all do to work on this,

and so I've got about 6 hours

of presentation and slides

that we'll cut down to some

meaningful time for you.

I think it's amazing and D.T.

wouldn't believe you if you could

go back in time and tell

him that 20 years from now

you're gonna have an NSA general

here talking to the group

sort of as an ally.

Seeing people like General

Alexander come down

and meet with us hackers...

it's just amazing.

I've been in the hacking scene

for over, what, 25 years now

and I remember the days when we

were just considered criminals

that no one wanted to integrate

with, they didn't understand how

a hacking ethos could be applied

to things that weren't illegal.

And now... this completely

legitimizes what we're doing.

People want to see what we're

doing and they want to hear

about what we're doing, and

they're realizing that we

have a role to play in keeping

the world's infrastructure safe

and keeping the government safe.

And that... that's awesome.

And there's a lot of things

that are going on here.

We can sit on the

sidelines, and let others

who don't understand this space

tell us what they're going

to do, or we can help by

educating and informing them on

the best strategy going forward

that benefits all of us and our nation.

And that's the real

reason that I came here,

to solicit your support.

But on the other side we also

have super privacy advocates,

the E.F.F. is going to be

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