Welcome back to DEF CON 31 and I am curious, what is everyone's favorite DEF CON tip?
So I have this sign right here which is, give me your DEF CON tip.
I actually forgot the word DEF CON so it's right there, but I'm thinking it's perfectly
fine to hold this sign out where people can see me and people can come up and give me
their best DEF CON tip.
Let's see.
What is your best DEF CON tip for someone who's never been before?
Go right up onto the mic.
Best DEF CON tip.
Grab your book, go through it, figure out the things that you're interested in, mark
it into three categories.
I want to see, would be nice to see, forget it.
And then always make sure that as you go to things, you have your fallback plan because
most things will be full.
DEF CON tip for newbies, always play scavenger hunt.
Yeah!
That's a good one.
What is your best DEF CON tip?
Wear deodorant.
That is an important one.
In shower.
Very good one, indeed.
If you want a badge, run a department.
Yeah!
Very good one.
Get involved at DEF CON.
Very good one.
Hey, what's up?
This is NoHackMe, your favorite goon's favorite goon.
My pro tip to all you newbies out there, bring some insoles.
The 3-2-1 rule doesn't really matter, burner phones are stupid because cell service sucks.
Get some insoles.
You walk more than you think, you're on your feet more than you think.
Get some insoles, next week your feet will thank you.
Use Hacker Tracker, it's not malware and you'll find everything you need.
Alright, drink plenty of water, stay hydrated and be open to anything and everybody.
Come say hi.
Nice!
Don't be shy.
Very good one.
Drink lots of water, meet more people.
Love it.
Probably hydrate before, like I've been doing.
That's the best thing, I think.
Water.
Most people probably don't do it.
And they're going to do a lot of other debaucheries that are going to require the water.
Lots of water.
I'd say debaucheries, too.
There you go.
Good shoes.
Good shoes.
Hydrate.
If you wear XL or bigger, baby powder.
This is about all the conversations you have in person.
The random ones.
The ones in the villages.
That's where the magic happens.
Merch will last longer than three hours.
You don't have to go right away.
Don't plug in any device into your computer that you don't trust.
It's a favorite.
Stay hydrated and stay cool.
Don't underestimate kids.
Ever.
My tip is don't trust anybody here, especially me.
Stay hydrated.
If you're here at DEF CON, you've got to make sure you drink lots of water.
Because if you're in a desert, it's dry.
You won't notice that you're getting dehydrated.
So only drink water.
Trader Joe's run for half and half.
And you have coffee in your room without a line.
Don't stand in Starbucks.
And you don't have to pay $12 for a coffee either.
Exactly.
A little powdered espresso.
Good stuff.
Medallia d'Oro.
Okay, so when you leave the Flamingo to get to everything else,
because the Flamingo is not attached through the Skywalk,
you want to go through O'Shea's.
It's a restaurant.
It's not really a restaurant because it's all still casino and it's really big.
No one's going to stop you or anything crazy like that.
But go around to the outside mall.
Find O'Shea's.
It's a little bit past the Starbucks.
You're going to be okay.
Follow the signs from there.
That's a very good one.
Thank you.
I don't know why people are making this dirty.
It says DEFCON.
People keep just telling me, like, just the tip.
It says DEFCON.
People are ridiculous.
I put this on the DEFCON Discord and here are the responses.
Without looking at them first, we got...
Here's the tip.
Don't F it up.
Just the tip.
Anything more requires a subscription to my OnlyFans.
So don't be afraid to do DEFCON by yourself.
So I have my group and we'll meet up at breakfast and dinner.
We actually split up and go separate ways in between.
And you meet so much more people that way.
So even if being outside by yourself is a little out of your comfort zone,
everyone is great.
So it's totally worth it.
My DEFCON tip for newbies is definitely going to be pick one or two talks
that you just have to be at.
If you want to see it drop live, then the rest are on YouTube.
It's like, don't try to get caught up trying to catch all the talks now.
Spend the time networking, hanging out, watching people and the craziness
that's going down through the hallways, the villages, the contest area,
the vendor area, the chill-out area.
Go and network and meet other like-minded hackers and try to figure out
what else is going on.
That's what you should be doing at DEFCON.
My best DEFCON tip for newcomers is to use the hacker tracker.
Here's a tip for everyone who's coming up asking for the bathroom.
It's that way, in case anyone's wondering.
Here's another one from Discord.
Wear comfortable shoes. There will be significant amounts of walking.
Here's another one coming from Twitter.
Be selfish with your time.
There's so much to do and there's such a fear of missing out.
Be selfish.
If you find yourself not enjoying the thing you're doing at any given time, get up.
Go find something because there's so much to do.
Pre-register for this. It was 20 minutes to go through the line.
I don't know how long it was for cash. Probably hours.
Best piece of advice that I can give you all out there is if you show up for cash at the door,
show up super early so that you get an actual badge.
Not one of these guys.
Show up early to pick up your badge if you're not registered.
If you have time, register early. That's huge.
The next thing is, this place can be overwhelming.
Definitely go in with some level of planning.
Some foresight. Some people you want to talk to.
Villages you want to visit. Stuff like that.
Try out the talks. See how you like them. If not, bail.
Go to the villages. Hang out with the people.
Here's another one from Discord.
Follow the 3-2-1 rule.
That's three hours of sleep a night, two meals, and at least one shower.
Lots of deodorant.
Furries are party animals.
The best solution is usually the easiest.
You don't have to attend everything. Don't let the lines bother you.
Have fun. Just go. Trust your gut.
It's a community. It's not like any other conference you'll ever be.
So just have fun. That's all I'm going to say.
My tip for newbies here is that if you get stuck, just talk to a goon.
The goons are the guys wearing red, like my new buddy here, Silk.
Is that your name, Silk?
Silk.
Okay, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you as well.
Ah!
That was awkward.
There we go. Alright, cheers.
Nailed it.
Thanks.
Alright, so far this is my first DEF CON.
I would say my number one tip is just talk to people.
Everyone's really happy to say hi and talk to you about what they're into and join you on different talks.
So, yeah, don't be afraid to make friends.
Pack food. Vegas is expensive.
Bring snacks or something.
I brought 20 oatmeal cookies and that's my breakfast for the next three days.
Hello, stay hydrated and just in case if anybody wants to come and get hired, we have a job right here.
Airplane mode.
A piece of advice from someone off camera was only go to the talks.
Well, the talks are amazing and they're really good.
All of them go up online or most of them do.
The biggest benefit to going to some of the talks is the speaker comes off stage and you can ask him questions and get clarifications.
While the talks, again, are absolutely incredible, a lot of them go up online.
So instead of bumping into people trying to get in for a really popular talk, sometimes your best course of action is to catch it online and plan to talk to the person after they get off stage.
Great piece of advice.
Thank you.
I don't know why people are being dirty.
It says for DEF CON.
Somewhere in the middle there.
I can't see the camera when I do this.
Yeah, if it's your first time at DEF CON, you should absolutely try out the scavenger hunt.
It's a great way to go around, meet people, try new things, see interesting stuff, and expose yourself to a part of con that most people don't even realize exists.
A piece of advice off camera is don't go see the talks because they're all recorded and put online.
Go be social because that is one of the most important pieces of being in the community, interacting and hanging out with other people.
So go. Enjoy things.
And do it while doing scav hunt because that is a unifying experience.
Another piece of advice, go find someone who knows something you don't know and learn from them.
And then go find someone who you know something that they don't and share it with them.
Whether it's at the lockpicking village, whether it's at any number of villages, go teach, go learn, because that's really what the community is about, sharing information.
Beautiful thing.
Drink water.
Yeah, my DEF CON tip for newbies is on the first day, make sure you do start with rum.
That's it.
What do you drink after rum, though?
Another rum.
What about after rum?
Yeah, another rum.
What's after rum?
What's after rum?
No, I'm asking you.
Is there something after rum?
Is there?
What's your tip for DEF CON newbies?
PHP is outdated, but also be careful with how you create your applications.
I was actually at Black Hat and there was a vendor, there was actually a vendor who had a AR game posted.
And so they have like a leaderboard displayed on a screen and everything.
So I saw someone who got like a 300,000 score.
I was like, there's no way that they did that.
So I checked the source code and they were basically saving the score by making calls to a PHP endpoint with no authentication or anything whatsoever.
So I was able to just craft a link that said PHP is insecure and set my score to 69, 69, 69.
For the DEF CON newbies, I have to say, don't eat the yellow snow. It's not worth it.
Don't wait for lunchtime to get your lunch.
Hello. I'm a bit short for this. There you go.
Okay. The tip of the day. Reach out to CyberSec people from Australia and US for cyber security talent.
If you want to make sure you make a lot of friends at this event, make sure you got your Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on for everyone.
My tip is only bring one laptop. Carrying multiple gets pretty heavy.
Same thing goes for cameras. One camera, two is too many. Three is definitely too many.
Here's a DEF CON tip. Don't fuck it up.
Please don't fuck it up, of course, but talk to people. Talk to your neighbors. Meet someone in line. Line con's a thing. You're in line. Talk. You have interests.
Maybe they'll teach you something. Maybe you'll learn something. Maybe you can teach them something.
It's awesome. I make the best friendships here doing just that. And bring stickers, too.
The talks are all online and recorded, so I highly recommend go to a lot of the villages.
Don't forget to network at DEF CON. We learn from each other. Keep doing it.
Your first year is always going to be overwhelming. It's okay.
What's your best tip for DEF CON?
My best tip is keep it weird. DEF CON is a unique place. It's unique for you. It's unique for everybody here. So keep it weird. That's what it needs to be.
What's your best tip for DEF CON?
Hey, there's a whole bunch of shit here that you probably don't know about. Learn something that you don't know yet.
Gator, what's your DEF CON tip?
Go play the contest. Whether it's Darknet, Scavenger Hunt, there's a whole bunch of different ones out there. Go play with it.
Cannibal, what's your tip for DEF CON?
Tip for DEF CON? Talk to people. Meet people, be weird, and you will attract the people that you want to hang out with.
As I get back to the hotel room, I realize there's so many other tips, and I didn't really get to give a lot of mine.
So while I think hydrating is a good thing, and good shoes, and all of that, I think here would be the top piece of advice I would give to a new person who's never been to DEF CON, and even some of the old ones.
First and foremost, I think that is a good tip, to be selfish with your time. And I don't mean that to be like, be selfish, but there's so much to see, and you're not going to see it all.
So this kind of like, there's a little yin and yang to this one. The first one is be selfish with your time. If you're finding yourself not having fun with something, stop doing it, and go find something you are having fun with.
On the other side of things, if you are having fun, don't feel like you have to leave that thing to go find something new, because even like last year, 49 videos, plus like 10 other ones which we didn't even release, and we didn't even see everything.
You could stay in Blue Team Village, and if you're having fun there, you can never leave, and there's talk after talk after talk after talk. If you're having fun, continue doing it. If you're not having fun, go find something else.
Two, if you're having fun, or you're looking for some way to have fun, go check out the contest area. This is my favorite area to hang out. Like, vendors is fun, speaking, talking is fun, the villages are fun, but for me, it's all about the contests.
And the three I'm going to mention are Darknet, because it's a great place to learn, especially if you're in that education mindset where you want to go learn. There's fun things to be had there too, but it's just an approachable contest. You can go, you can do a little bit of it, and you can walk away.
Another one, you have to do a little bit of, like, legwork if you want to compete, but it's just a fun one to watch, which is Hack Fortress. One of my favorites to play, but also just watch because you have gamers, and you have hackers who are solving things, and most of their physical challenges, the team that runs it is great getting on the megaphone, and I think there was someone dancing with roller skates last year, and maybe they're going to do it again this year.
But the piece de resistance, the thing which I absolutely love at DEF CON is Scav Hunt. So I have a challenge. I'm ending this video with a tip, which is my challenge to you. If you are at DEF CON this year, or you ever come, go to the Scav Hunt table. It's fun to watch, but here's my challenge. Get a list. Find one item. There's like 200 items on the list. Find one item.
And turn it in. And you will have so much fun. And you have a story to tell. I guarantee it. And if it doesn't make you meet other people, then I think the whole contest is like, it's the whole goal of this conference. It's where you will find the most fun.
And here's the thing. This entire conference is about meeting people. It's not about the technical stuff. And it's great. And it's great hearing about the new exploits and all of that. But you can find exploit information online. You can find talking information online. And that's why people say the talks are recorded.
What you cannot find anywhere else is the people in the community to connect with at this conference. Because that is what it is all about. And you're looking for your tribe. And while people go, oh, DEF CON's gotten too big. And you'll see this in the Jason Street conversation I have, and which will be coming up, is DEF CON has gotten big.
And that's what's so cool about it. Because you can find your tribe through a ton of different places. You can find it in shared interests. You can find it in other places of the community. But you can find people you connect with and you tribe with and you share a passion with. So that's it. Go find, right now, go find a single item on the scav hunt list. And you, I guarantee it, will have a blast.
Thanks for watching the tips. And, as always, HACK ON!