tatramaco Posted April 3, 2012 Posted April 3, 2012 I'm going to my first ever con in May :) But as a suitably paranoid person what steps do guys (and gals) normally take to secure themselves/their machines when going to a con ??? Quote
digininja Posted April 3, 2012 Posted April 3, 2012 Leave it at home. I always take a laptop to cons and rarely actually get it out. If you want to take it the really paranoid thing to do is to get a new drive and put a clean install on it. Set up a VPN and make sure that it is set to only work through that. Take a mifi or phone that you can tether with and disable your wifi as well so you don't end up on the con network. I'd also suggest watching your screen. Standing in the sky booths at Defcon or the speaker room at Brucon I've watched many peoples screens so despite protecting their software they leave themselves open to screen sniffing. Quote
digip Posted April 4, 2012 Posted April 4, 2012 Leave it at home. I always take a laptop to cons and rarely actually get it out. If you want to take it the really paranoid thing to do is to get a new drive and put a clean install on it. Set up a VPN and make sure that it is set to only work through that. Take a mifi or phone that you can tether with and disable your wifi as well so you don't end up on the con network. I'd also suggest watching your screen. Standing in the sky booths at Defcon or the speaker room at Brucon I've watched many peoples screens so despite protecting their software they leave themselves open to screen sniffing. Well said. The only thing I would add to that, is that a conference, is no different than any other public place you bring your laptop or wifi enabled device to. Just because you are at a conference, does not necessarily make you more prone to attack. Not saying it isn't a prime location for it to happen, but you should assume and treat all public locations in the same manner; as hostile. Airports, restaurants, hotels, friends/family/neighbors, etc. Any network you connect to that you do not own, whether wired or wifi, should be treated as hostile. Quote
Mr-Protocol Posted April 4, 2012 Posted April 4, 2012 Don't forget to add a bogus AP to your list to watch out for Pineapples :D. Quote
digininja Posted April 13, 2012 Posted April 13, 2012 I'm sure "big bro" doesn't really care about 99% of the people who go to hacker cons and most cons let you download their videos for free so you don't need to pirate anything Quote
digininja Posted April 13, 2012 Posted April 13, 2012 I'm sorry, but I really have to disagree. I think they catalog, profile, and share information as much as possible on as many people as possible. It's not even really a secret... they say as much when interviewed in the /VERY PRICEY/-if-not-pirated HOPE con DVDs... It may be true to a degree and I've not seen the videos so can't properly comment, but we will probably never know how much they do store and how much of that they actually use. I have the feeling that even if the government knows I'm a hacker that they have way too many other things to worry about than to try to keep tabs on me in any way. Especially with budget cut backs I'm sure they have better things to do. There are a few things I'm paranoid about but government surveillance isn't one of them unless I'm doing something I shouldn't be which I try to avoid so they don't take my clearance off me. Quote
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