Another DEFCON has come and gone.  Another weekend in Vegas.  Another 6 hours of pai gow and $20 to a slot machine.  But it wasn’t just any ordinary con, this one was run by a volunteer fed, and one that had a star-studded speaker list.  Among those that spoke were Rod Beckstrom (see Securing GovSpace for a good synopsis), Bruce Schneier, Bruce Potter, Richard Thieme, and the perennial faves, Johnny Long, Marc Weber Tobias, and Joe “Kingpin” Grand.  And Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame.  It’s the proverbial A-list of the information security industry.  Of course, there were the uber-geeks that displayed their wares, including a presentation on UCSniff by Viper Labs, Moxie Marlinspike’s SSL vulnerability presentation, a compendium of web 2.0 tools / methods, and a number of lockpicking presentations to boot. 

For the most part, I found the majority of the talks more thought-provoking than in years past.  I’d even say that the industry seems to be headed towards developing it’s own philosophy / science.  My friend Crash turned me on to this site, that poses a scientific model for IT security and cites both the work of Paul Feyerabend and the falsification theories of Karl Popper, tempered with Thomas Kuhn.  He met these guys at Blackhat.   Their site is a blog in support of a book that proposes a new view of the cyber-world, potentially changing the concept and perception of risk.  Their “manifesto”, in large part, is driven by their belief that Information Security field is an emerging “social science” and they are hoping to evolve the science to the next level.  At Blackhat, they presented the Mortman/Hutton Model for Expectation of Exploit use.  Pretty neat twist on the Gartner Hype model, and, I think, indicative of the dissatisfaction with the historical fireman or hero reactive approach to IT security.

Now to address what stayed in Vegas.  Since Mrs. Jupiter reads this blog as well, I’ll just provide a few of Vegas’ unwritten rules we picked up on this trip:

  1. “Just past Caesars” means you really ought to take a cab.
  2. Dog the Bounty Hunter doesn’t take cabs.
  3. The Segway outside the men’s room that says “Security” on it is NOT an attraction.
  4. Topless shows are free, you just need to hang out with the right tourists.
  5. Mooning in the bar attracts the attention of the male security staff.
  6. Pai Gow is a “frenemy”.
  7. All male geeks have a crush on Carrie from Mythbusters.  Some have a crush on Adam. 
  8. It’s not “Vegas Jail”, it’s “Clark County Detention Center”.

And finally, I have to take my hat off to one individual that shall remain unnamed.  Met up with this guy at the bar in the Riviera.  He chatted up a stunning blonde and left, heading up to his room with her.  I then spotted the same stunning blonde walking through the casino about 5 minutes later.  Another 5 minutes and he’s back in the bar.  Turns out she’s a hooker, and he talked her down from $500 to $175.  Then he told her to hit the bricks; the price was still too high.  After getting a 65% discount!  I shall now and forever more pay him homage whenever I use the term “Low Roller” by capitalizing it in his honor.

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