DEFCON 20 Human Badges

If you’re going to be at the hacker mecca of the DEFCON security conference in Las Vegas this weekend, there is a lot to keep the maker interested, both security related and beyond.

If you’re unable to attend, I’m going to be bringing you some of the weekend’s highlights here on MAKE. To help you plan the weekend here’s some hardware/physical-world focused sessions to keep an eye on:

Thursday

• Fun with the Lockpick Village

Friday

• Welcome & Making the DEF CON 20 Badge
• Making Sense of Static – New Tools for Hacking GPS
• Embedded Device Firmware Vulnerability Hunting Using FRAK, the Firmware Reverse Analysis Konsole
• Passive Bluetooth Monitoring in Scapy
• Not So Super Notes, How Well Does US Dollar Note Security Prevent Counterfeiting?
• Don’t Stand So Close To Me: An Analysis of the NFC Attack Surface
• Drones!
• NFC Hacking: The Easy Way
• Attacking TPM Part 2: A Look at the ST19WP18 TPM Device
• Bypassing [USB] Endpoint Security for $20 or Less

Saturday

• Safes and Containers: Insecurity Design Excellence
• Hacking Humanity: Human Augmentation and You
• Exploit Archaeology: Raiders of the Lost Payphones
• DIY Electric Car
• More Projects of Prototype This!
• Hardware Backdooring is Practical
• Hellaphone: Replacing the Java in Android
• <ghz or bust: DEF CON
• Off-Grid Communications with Android: Meshing the Mobile World
• The Safety Dance – Wardriving the Public Safety Band
• Hacker + Airplanes = No Good Can Come Of This
• The Darknet of Things, Building Sensor Networks That Do Your Bidding

Sunday

• Robots: You’re Doing It Wrong 2
• KinectasploitV2: Kinect Meets 20 Security Tools
• Looking Into The Eye Of The Meter
• Owning the Network: Adventures in Router Rootkits
• Hacking [Redacted] Routers
• Hacking the Google TV
• How to Hack All the Transport Networks of a Country
• The Paparazzi Platform: Flexible, Open-Source, Unmanned Aerial Systems Software and Hardware

Badges and other electronic hackery

While DEFCON last year moved away from electronic badges, this year the DEFCON electronic badges have returned (pictured above). And the sought after Ninja Network “badge” is also back with a vengence—now it’s a GSM phone and associated dedicated phone network. Look for the many people who will spend their weekend hacking on one of these electronics badges.

Make sure you also get along to the Hardware Hacking Village which makes a welcome return this year. Looks like you’ll find talks and maybe even a learn to solder session. A great opportunity to meet Makers and others with an interest in hardware.

If this year is anything like previous years, you might even be able to find vintage computer hardware (like the PDP-11) hiding away in a room.

But beware of charging stations bearing juice.

See you in Vegas!