#defcon30

Now that DefCon has ended, life has returned to normal. That means I'm more fired up with ideas for project than ever! I might end up sharing some more detailed stories from DefCon but for now, I wanted to share some inspiration I found in between the pages of a fabled zine called 2600.

I first came across this little pocketable zine in my early 20's. I was working the dream job for a book loving stoner, Barnes & Noble. This was during the rise of Starbucks and out here in the desert, corporate culture ruled with an iron fist. Indie bookstores falling left and right became the norm in those days(the rise of Amazon would then lead to THEIR near demise -poetic justice?). In spite of the grim state of print, I was happy to be surrounded by books.

I had been on the lookout for zines in town but found they were in short supply (unlike my visits to San Francisco or Portland). Two exceptions to that were 'Maximum RocknRoll' and '2600'.

These scrappy zines weren't full of perfume samples and muscle bound dudes selling you the latest greatest thing you didn't need. They weren't gossip rags or drippy prose stuffed full of them selves. Quite the opposite.

MRR was black and white throughout and full of punk music, politics, show/music reviews and rants from angry humans around the world. The content wasn't written by a bunch of snobby staff writers, it was written by the readers (zines is shorthand for fanzines or fan magazine), regular people who wanted to be heard. Unsterilized, reading a zine can be empowering, if THEY can write and get published so can I!

2600 was the MRR of technology and cracking it open, I expected the same feeling of communion with strangers from far away. Instead, I read an article about how to hack an early self checkout system and turn it into an ATM! Other articles were technically dense with terminology I'd never encountered and I quickly decided that it was all too much and beyond anything I would ever be capable of understanding (I was also not interested in stealing cash from an ATM or anywhere for that matter!)

So it was between me and 2600 until today. Something clicked post DefCon and that memory of my early 20's came back. I was ready to know what was in those pages that has kept it in circulation since 1984 and see if I had changed or if it was the dense technical manual I recalled.

I walked into a Barnes & Noble to complete the circle, and fished the only copy from behind corporate rags stinking of sterility and began to read. Immediately I knew I had found a new favorite thing! I was flipping through the pages fervently, focused and excited. Easily, money changed hands so I could bring it home and continue in comfort.

Once home I found an article from Tim R entitled 'Data Analysis as a Next Step'. In it, Tim makes a case for adding independent data analysis to our hacking toolkit when there are data leaks and other information that is commonly analyzed and digested for us by news outlets. Using tools like Python, Tim encourages readers try understanding these data dumps for themselves as well as perhaps offering independent verification for our peers or organizations who could benefit from the shared knowledge of how to USE these tools.

This is the kind of overlap I am seeking in learning to code/hack. Motivation to keep learning, paired with a desire to creatively make a difference are at my core and ideas like this make me feel like I'm on the right track.

Learning Python in general has been my focus over the last few years, but knowing how I'll end uo applying that knowledge is where I come up short (what kind of roles do I look for work in? Do I WANT this to replace my current career?). That may be changing as I notice feeling more focused and alert when going through data manipulation and visualization exercises (Pandas!). The more I learn about the technology we use day in and out, I become increasingly concerned with free speech, privacy and security as well. Overlap. Merge. Lo Frequency-> Hi frequency.

Thank you 2600 for waiting all these years for me to catch up! If you are also are waiting for overlap, direction or focus, know that it will come with time. Just keep moving forward.

I'm wiped out! Didn't meet my networking goals, but I did get a chance to see aspects of security in the digital world I hadn't before been exposed to. I was able to see a few ways Python can be used for good (and evil) and found out that thetevis a ton of creativity in what these people do daily. I'm looking forward to improving my skills in Python and also understanding more about how to protect my family and friends digitally! I may give some more technical insight but overall this was an event and community I plan on becoming more and more involved with.

-see u at DC31!

Another day down! Today was workshop day. The title of the workshop was "Dig Dug: The lost art of network tunneling." I don't want to go into the details of the workshop - it was a ton of info to cram into my brain - but I can say that I loved every minute of it! There were prizes raffled off at the end, but the main thing I took away was an emphasis on the importance of privacy and retaining control of our data. These were not new concepts to me, but listening to Eijah talk about the code we were deploying, his passion for what does and why were infectious.

After this I made it to a bar to eat and have a beverage. It was super busy (Saturday afternoon in Vegas it's no surprise), but I found a chair next to some folks with badges. While I didn't end up connecting with them on Twitter (the only thing I could thing of at the time), they were a reminder that I shouldn't be afraid to talk to strangers! Twri sets of strangers in an hour! This was actually a big deal for me. While I can chat with strangers over a bar top no problem, once I'm solo one on one, I tend towards quiet and timid.

Met up with GT and we made our way to the Social Engineering Village. A panel on a career in SE was a great insight into yet another aspect of cyber security that interests me. Then I ran into an old friend who I had no idea was in the tech world! She is a talented artist and it was great to know someone with a similar creative background was here (and had attended other security conferences) networking and taking in the con like I was! Again, she had advice on how to network and approach new people which I really appreciated and hopefully I can work up the courage to talk to more people I don't know!

Googly eyes are everywhere and in everything! It's so funny. I love it!

Tomorrow I may try out a 'cold call' sign up at the SE village where noobs can try to get x bits of info from a preselected 'targets' in a 5 minute window. Each day is bringing something new and I am looking forward to another one! Oh and I may have bought a split 60% Keyboard I'll be putting together sometime soon!