Next week, DEF CON, the world’s longest running underground hacking conference, boldly goes where it’s never gone before — online. Deeply ingrained in hacker culture, DEF CON has long embraced creativity, tinkering and acceptance. And that openness extends to policymakers who may be able to join for the first time since the conference will be free and held virtually this year.
“There's a history of both cooperation and friction between DEF CON and the U.S. government,” said
Beau Woods, a leader of
I Am The Cavalry and village organizer at DEF CON. “The organizers invited an FBI agent prosecuting cybercrime to the very first event. Not only did she show up, she gave a well-received talk wherein she promised she wasn't there to arrest anyone.”
While participants may still compete in “
Spot the Fed,” it’s increasingly clear to the technology community and policymakers that the two need to find ways to work together. “In the absence of technically literate voices of reason connecting with the public policy community, a vacuum exists that is filled with those with lesser expertise, lesser motives and lesser experience in confronting the challenges that await us in the 21st century,” said Woods.
The conference can still be jarring to many new to hacker culture, which is why Woods, a DEF CON policy goon (volunteer organizer), started the “
Lost Policymakers Guide” with others at the crossroads of the cyber and policy worlds to help those new to hacker conferences.
To track policy talks at DEF CON, the Policy group offers an agenda capturing recommended talks from across the conference for policymakers.
This year, the in-person conference was “canceled” (
again), but will still operate in “safe mode” with plenty of D.C. policymaker involvement in the
virtual villages. Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency Director Chris Krebs, FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Amy P. Abernethy and officials from the Department of Defense and Department of Transportation will participate in the Biohacking, ICS and Aerospace Villages.
