[TriLUG] CarolinaCon - this weekend

Michael Ansel trilug at anselcomputers.com
Wed Mar 11 09:34:45 EDT 2009


Curbob, the-guy-who-knows-more-about-the-server-than-me, said the
server took a nose dive this morning. Yes, the Con is still on. (via
Twitter; follow @CarolinaCon for updates)

Michael

On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 8:38 AM, Carl Crider <c.crider at gmail.com> wrote:
>  I guess the Carolina Con website is taking a big hit this morning? Can't
> seem to get to it.
>
> On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 10:31 PM, Michael Ansel
> <trilug at anselcomputers.com>wrote:
>
>> Wow Alan, that was an awesome description: I wish I could explain it
>> that well. For my part though, last year was the first year I went,
>> and I absolutely loved it! Several of the talks were worth the $20 on
>> their own, so the rest was just icing on the cake for me. Even topics
>> I was already familiar with, like cross-site scripting, were looked at
>> in a unique way that led me down a completely new path of research.
>>
>> I definitely cannot wait for this Friday, which brings me to my second
>> point: Is there anyone going that could give me a ride to/from Duke on
>> Friday and/or Saturday? I was going to borrow a friend's car over
>> Spring Break, but she forgot to give me the keys before leaving for
>> the Caribbean. :-/  Thanks so much if you can help!
>>
>> Michael
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 5:32 PM, Alan Porter <porter at trilug.org> wrote:
>> >> Alan, can you please expound on why you think it
>> >> would be good to go to?
>> >
>> > "DefCon Lite"... maybe that's a good image.
>> >
>> > On one hand, the entire thing had this unprofessional and low-budget
>> > feel to it.  That was emphasized over and over by the MC, who had a
>> > quirky self-deprecating sense of humor, with phrases like "you keep
>> > their attention with your technical talk, while Nick and I run off with
>> > admission money".  And other jewels, like introducing Sapna Kumar as (1)
>> > hot (2) wicked smart and (3) really hot, all while she stood at the
>> > podium, laughing.
>> >
>> > The MC gave the entire event a kind of cheap and sleazy ambiance, sort
>> > of like Krusty the Clown.... with more expletives.
>> >
>> > Some of the talks showed live exploits of running systems, something I
>> > had heard about, but never really understood fully.  We saw a web site
>> > that was purposefully made vulnerable to SQL injections, and the use of
>> > string format vulnerabilities to uncover the private key of anti-virus
>> > software.
>> >
>> > One presenter ran through the many ways that game consoles have been
>> > modified to run custom software, or to bypass the normal authentication,
>> > with pretty detailed treatment of the security measures employed by game
>> > consoles, and how they were defeated because they had to be backwards
>> > compatible with older systems.
>> >
>> > There were other presentations that were given by security consultants
>> > who work with police, discussing how they do forensics on a captured
>> > machine.  And a guy from the Air Force who made a career out of planting
>> > bugs and sweeping rooms for enemy bugs (after his presentation, he
>> > revealed where he had hidden bugs in the meeting room).
>> >
>> > There were other sessions on rootkits, and how they can get closer to
>> > the metal (application, OS, VM, BIOS, etc).  Sapna Kumar talked about
>> > the RIAA.  One guy showed lots of Firefox plugins that can be used for
>> > web app development as well as to alter data going to web sites to test
>> > for vulnerabilities.
>> >
>> > And they wrapped it up with a Jeopardy-like game of hacker trivia.
>> >
>> > For me, personally, I felt like it was a good exposure to a lot of
>> > topics that I had little knowledge of before.  There were interesting
>> > people in the audience, and plenty of technology and humor to keep my
>> > attention.  All for just $20.
>> >
>> > Alan
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
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>> >
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