higB’s 2010 Las Vegas BlackHat DefCon summary

higB here..  I’ll keep my post mostly about the culture

Amanda did a great job making sure we were in the Palace tower (not the stinky Forum tower). It was awesome having help this year to organize the Intrepidus Group visit to BlackHat/DefCon. Every year we get bigger and every year the cat herding task is more challenging. Thanks Amanda! (and thank you Mac for organizing the shoot, more on this later…)

Some of our traditions are borrowed, but we have some of our own, too.

Tradition: The FNG list

If you haven’t brought an intern to Vegas with you I HIGHLY recommend it. In keeping with Intrepidus traditions, the FNG is required to fetch Vegas supplies.

Rules:

• The FNG can get you any reasonable supply.
• The FNG should avoid drug dealers named Doug.
• The FNG must have your list prior to Tuesday the 27^th.

Max, thank you! You were awesome!

(LtoR: Corey, Max, Zusman, Pridgen)

Tradition: Custom Con Tee Shirt

One fond memory I have of my early days at FS  was rocking a freshly designed con shirt. Prosise and crew put in effort to get a cool design for us to wear every year.  We carry on a similar tradition here. (The shirt is usually packed with inside jokes, so apologies in advance.)

Click to see the design

Tradition: Death via Maggiano’s

If you didn’t see any of us Friday night, it’s because we got close to nearly killing ourselves at Maggiano’s. Seriously, we have to stop going there. Every year it’s the same thing, followed by a direct trip to the hotel room to moan and groan. I was down for the count and didn’t leave the hotel room.

*New* Tradition: DefCon Unofficial Shoot [Link]

My first DefCon was in 98. My first participation in the DefCon shoot was 2010. Thanks to our guy Mac for organizing and, of course, Deviant and crew.  The event was well organized, but I think they were a little worried when they saw the target we brought…

Of course we knew Mac and Jim would be great marksmen, but we were all a little creeped out by how awesome Doug was. (If that is your REAL name, Doug…mister “i’ve never done this before…”)

Hot:

• Ridley’s Photos: check em out
• Jeremy Allen and Raj Umadas BH talk on Mallory
• Zach’s BSides talk
• #maggianos
• taqueria canonita venetian
• SecurityTwits party
• DefCon Shoot
• Craig Heffner’s “Millions of Routers” talk (seriously)
• WiMax talk: Pierce, Goldy and aSmig
• Blake Self and Bitemytaco’s Docsis talk
• Blue EFF teeshirt
• This year’s badge

Not Hot:

• The  Riviera (gross bathrooms .. yay Rio?)
• Goon track change on Saturday screwed over people in line.
• Last year’s badge (it was bad enough that it deserved another mention)
• FastlapLV broken and slow go-karts

I hope to see everybody next year!

-higB

(LtoR: Dean, Aaron, and Rohyt @ Caesars.)

Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.