This year I attended my first ShmooCon. ShmooCon is described as:
ShmooCon is an annual East coast hacker convention hell-bent on offering three days of an interesting atmosphere for demonstrating technology exploitation, inventive software & hardware solutions, and open discussions of critical infosec issues.
And you know its going to be hell bent when, the conference badge is a bottle opener, and the conference bag is a cooler for a six-pack. I went to this conference on the recommendations of some friends that attended last year. My overall review, it was an excellent conference and well worth the money. I will definitely be attending again next year. The talks ranged from very technical, to a rather weird talk about gun safety. I mainly attended the "Break it" track that discussed different security exploits, and how they could have been prevented. One of my favorite talks was "No Tech Hacking" by j0hnny long of johnny.ihackstuff.com. He pointed out how stupid people are with security that does not involve any technology by the attacker to exploit, e.g. exposed ID badges, general operational security stuff. I am also now more of an advocate against RFID, as there was a great talk about how easily they can be cloned. Major Malfunction demonstrated cloning a tag that someone had implanted in their wrist.
The Con closed with a great talk about OLPC (One Laptop Per Child), for those not familiar with the OLPC initiative:
Our goal: To provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves.
The panel discussed the societal and the security implications the program will bring up. The laptops are actually an amazing piece of hardware, including a very power efficient AMD Geode processor, with encryption acceleration, solid state memory, and a custom developed first of its kind LCD screen that is visible in sunlight. I think the OLPC program is a great thing and if it does as they plan (giving 100-150 MILLION laptops to children in countries where education is limited, next year) it could do great things for education. It can open up a wealth of knowledge to children where education is not widespread. Children may be able to learn how to better survive, by getting better medical information, better agricultural information, and just a great collaboration tool.
The security implications of the OLPC program are huge however. Releasing a device that cheap and widespread could open many security issues. Many of which are being addressed in a radical security program they are developing called BitFrost. Read about it on their wiki.
I almost forgot. On Saturday night they also had a Hack or Halo contest in which you could either participate in a hacking competition, or a Halo tournament. I participated in the Halo contest and got Second, so almost, but not too shabby considering I hadn't played for 2 months. I'll definitely be practicing for next year and will take first in what should be the Halo 3 tournament. Anyways, enough, later.
