DEFCON: The Documentary Page #8

So there's problems the public knows about, and

there's problems that never see the light of day.

Or hopefully never see the light of day.

So we've had a little bit on both sides.

Nearly dodged lawsuits, those

kinds of things. We had one at

the Alexis Park where there was a federal

grand jury we heard about that was

investigating DEF CON and they were asking

for all the room reservation, credit card

info on everybody who attended DEF CON.

Luckily we are cash only, so there's no

records to seize from us. So as the

organization we were fine, but the hotel

and vendors in the area, they were getting

their records taken, seized, and they're

performing some investigations. In the

end, nothing came of it. The grand jury

as far as I know never did anything with it.

But, that's one of those things

where for years I was telling people,

there's a reason why you don't process

credit cards and keep records. And after

years of doing that, I was vindicated

in my paranoia. Because that would have

been a huge legal battle to deal with

all of that. To try and turn it over,

not turn it over. So there's battles

like that that never see the light of day.

And this is the first time I've ever

actually talked about it.

Describe Jeff Moss.

- Describe Jeff Moss. Oh...

Jeff is a friend. He's an interesting guy.

He travels a lot. He's very intelligent.

Jeff's awesome. He is legitimately a good person.

He's absolutely brilliant.

And in my opinion, if we didn't have

Jeff, this community and this culture

would have never grown to what it is.

Without Jeff, DEF CON never would

have made it this far. I believe that

without DEF CON goons, it also never

would have made it this far, but Jeff

is the glue. You know, he's the

glue that brought us this far.

This grew from a very small

conference where the staff was

equal to, or more than the

attendees, to a crowd that

regularly we've had to move venues every

couple years, because we keep growing so much.

Yet, that continual continuity,

and the spirit of DEF CON

if you will, is maintained

because of Jeff.

He's overly concerned about what the DEF

CON attendees think about the conference.

He wants them to have a good

experience, he really does.

Jeff cares about DEF CON, so much!

He's a bit shy, as I'm sure everybody has

gotten to figure out over the years.

It's difficult to get a hold of him sometimes

at DEF CON, and difficult to grab him.

You know, he's like most hackers. He's not

overly social, and he's got that quiet side,

a little withdrawn. He's only got

so much he's willing to give you.

He is a really personable,

kind-hearted guy.

He is managing chaos, and

it is not an easy job, and he's a very

smart guy, and it's very difficult job,

and fortunately, he's also surrounded himself

with people who can help him do that.

In the early days, there

wasn't a formal structure.

Kind of in the beginning,

we all were security goons

to a certain extent, and whether is was official or

unofficial there was a group of people that helped

control of what was going on, and it wasn't until later

years, that, as the attendance went up, that we had

to deal with more formal roles.

Rule number four. Do listen to the Goons. If a

red shirt tells you to do something, do it.

The goons aren't trying to ruin your fun. They're just

trying to make DEF CON an enjoyable experience for everyone.

I mean, without the Goons, I think there are a lot

of things that would just fall apart really fast.

And they have in the past.

It may have been after DEF CON 9, it was really a rough year.

I don't exactly remember why, but we had growth spurts.

Where at the Alexis Park, they're physically breaking up fights.

They're picking drunks up out of the

rose bushes. They're doing CPR on people.

The Goons at the early Alexis Park

days that everybody misses,

were actually Goons.

There have been some serious cardiac events, that

I participated in, but we have had no deaths.

We were really beat up after 9,

and we had discussions then as

to, "You know, do we call it quits at 10? We've had a good run.

Ten years, that's substantial..."

Maybe we'll do it one more

and see how we feel."

And we did 10, and 10 turned out to be

pretty good, and thankfully, we didn't quit.

All of the various teams have

kind of occurred organically.

There's a lot of compartmentalization,

that I don't think people realize.

Everyone has their own responsibilities

that they're dealing with.

We've spent a lot of time over the past

year setting up for this convention.

It is truly a labor of love.

We are all volunteers.

We don't do this for glory, we don't do this for anything

other than we want you guys to have a good time.

When I'm not at DEF CON, we're talking about DEF CON.

The entire year, we're planning for DEF CON.

We're thinking about DEF CON.

We're telling DEF CON stories.

Because we live it. We love it.

You don't become a Goon.

You're born a Goon.

The joke is that we work for shirts.

We get a couple of shirts to go and

work for twelve hour days plus at DEF CON, plus all

the volunteer time throughout the rest of the year.

A couple of our guys have worn pedometers over the years, and

the average shift is between fifteen and twenty-five miles.

So, we tend to, especially newer people,

tell them to wear the right footwear,

make sure you always have water on you.

Never walk into a situation where you

don't have a plan.

One of the things I like to say is: "At DEF CON, I

live my life in the gutter, so you don't have to."

But, you're right, things that people don't see, that's

our DEF CON. That's the Security Goons' DEF CON.

I'm glad to do anything I

can for my fellow Goons.

Any time, any day.

I was creating a contest that would be

something I would want to participate in.

I used to say, magic is dead in the world,

so I'm gonna create some for everybody else.

I have to design cryptography and puzzles

for an incredibly brilliant audience

that is designed to be solved in three days.

That's not too easy, not too hard.

So now, that became my personal contest.

My challenge to myself is

how do I continue to entertain some of the smartest people

in the world and keep their brains occupied for three

days when a lot of them are smarter than

I am, and can figure this stuff out.

We've mapped out this challenge. The first thing we got on this

challenge, was a writer with two keywords. "We program" and "Under Foot.

This referred to an insane sentence

in the program. It's on page forty.

"Underfoot" represents the

third oval, the third

sticker in the convention center, and

those two things are two markers we

have to write on a piece of paper and give to 1057. Probably

one of the biggest compliments I've ever been paid was

and I've heard this a couple of times, "I

go to DEF CON to compete in your contest."

And that's, I mean I don't know what

anyone else could say, I'm very

flattered. I'm shocked, because it's just stupid

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