There’s no better way to stay motivated and to keep learning new things then by attending conferences. At these hacker conferences, you will meet tons of likeminded people that are probably much smarter than you that you can leach off. Believe it or not, there is always someone smarter then you. That someone is me. No, not really, but you get the point. There’s always something you can learn from someone else and if you think that you are the hottest shit around, someone needs to spank that mindset out of you, or you will never reach your potential.Here’s a list of the top 20 hacker conferences out there today with a short description that I found on their websites. They aren’t ranked from best to worst, because I am in no position to judge them since I haven’t been to all of them. If you think I missed a great one, feel free to mention it in the comments.
- DEFCON @ www.defcon.org – DEFCON is one of the oldest continuous running hacker conventions around, and also one of the largest. Originally started in 1993, it was a meant to be a party for member of “Platinum Net”, a Fido protocol based hacking network out of Canada. As the main U.S. hub I was helping the Platinum Net organizer (I forget his name) plan a closing party for all the member BBS systems and their users. He was going to shut down the network when his dad took a new job and had to move away. We talking about where we might hold it, when all of a sudden he left early and disappeared. I was just planning a party for a network that was shut down, except for my U.S. nodes. I decided what the hell, I’ll invite the members of all the other networks my BBS (A Dark Tangent System) system was a part of including Cyber Crime International (CCI), Hit Net, Tired of Protection (ToP), and like 8 others I can’t remember. Why not invite everyone on #hack? Good idea!
- Blackhat @ www.blackhat.com – “From its inception in 1997, Black Hat has grown from a single annual conference in Las Vegas to a global conference series with annual events in Tokyo, Amsterdam, Las Vegas and Washington DC. It has also become a premiere venue for elite security researchers and the best security trainers to find their audience.”
- ChicagoCon @ www.chicagocon.com – “features security-focused boot camps, exams on-site followed by a two-day ethical hacking conference. Learn from the pros and network with peers in order to advance your InfoSec career.”
- Toorcon @ www.toorcon.org – “San Diego’s hacker conference bringing together the top security experts to present their new tricks of the trade and have fun in the sunny and beautiful city of San Diego.”
- ShmooCon @ www.shmoocon.org – “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. The first day is a single track of speed talks, One Track Mind. The next two days, there are three tracks: Break It!, Build It!, and Bring It On!.”
- Hackinthebox @ http://conference.hackinthebox.org – “Asia’s largest network security conference held annually in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and more recently the Middle East.”
- HOPE @ www.thenexthope.org – “The HOPE conferences have been running since 1994. HOPE stands for Hackers On Planet Earth and it has become a gathering point for thousands of computer hackers, phone phreaks, net activists, government spooks, and a whole lot of curious people from all corners of the globe. This will be our sixth one (hence the name) and we expect to continue to grow and have more imaginative events, cool speakers, and fun projects than ever before. “
- Notacon @ www.notacon.org – “ an annual conference held in Cleveland, Ohio, explores and showcases technologies, philosophy and creativity often overlooked at many “hacker cons”. Our desire is not to supplant other events, but complement them and strike a balance that has gone unnoticed in our community for far too long. “
- HackerHalted @ www.hackerhalted.com – “Hacker Halted aspires to be a complete and comprehensive conference cum workshop that will educate and equip its participants with the in-depth knowledge of understanding the vulnerabilities and the countermeasures to overcome the security infringements present today.”
- ConFidence @ www.confidence.org.pl – International IT security conference held in Poland.
- Nullcon @ www.nullcon.net – “If you too share this passion for knowledge, if a core dump brings glimmer to your eyes, if you want to share your hack with others and you have an inquisitiveness to learn, then nullcon is the place for you. If meeting hackers/researchers/phreaks in a 2 days event packed conference and the sun-bathed beaches of the tropical paradise called Goa won’t get you off your bed, nothing ever will. So crack you knuckles, fire your Live CDs, dust your Debuggers and get ready for some serious action this February.”
- Phreaknic @ www.phreaknic.info – “Phreaknic was started years ago by JonnyX. After 5 years of working his bony ass off putting together a con on a budget, he had to leave Nashville to get a good job and survive. He passed on the duties to Dolemite, who with the help of his amex card, put together a group of directors and formed a non-profit corporation to put on the con. Dolemite built on previous successes, and has made phreaknic a well organized, finely tuned machine… Well, fairly well tuned. We have our moments. After Phreaknic 11, Dolemite stepped down as President of Nashville2600, the non-profit that puts on Phreaknic. A vote was taken and skydog was elected as President of the Nashville2600 Organization. This is our 13th year. We are the longest running annual hacker con in the United States. DefCon is the longest running, having just had their 17th con.”
- Dnscon @ www.dnscon.org – “DNS is a data and network security council conference. This being the annual meeting of UK security professionals and interested individuals. The UK’s longest running open information security conference provides an opportunity to find out about new threats to information security.”
- bruCON @ www.brucon.org - BruCON is an annual security and hacker conference providing two days of an interesting atmosphere for open discussions of critical infosec issues, privacy, information technology and its cultural/technical implications on society. Organized in Brussels, BruCON offers a high quality line up of speakers, security challenges and interesting workshops. It’s affordable, accessible and entertaining. BruCON is a conference by and for the security and hacker community.
- thotcon @ www.thotcon.org – “THOTCON (pronounced ?th?t and taken from THree – One – Two) is a new small venue hacking conference based in Chicago IL, USA. This is a non-profit, non-commercial event looking to provide the best conference possible on a very limited budget. “
- SEC-T @ www.sec-t.org – “SEC-T is an annual vendor and company independent information security conference in Stockholm, Sweden. The conference is a single track conference with one hour time slots. All presentations and official communications will be in English to allow our non-swedish-speaking presenters and attendees to participate without restrictions.”
- Summercon @ www.summercon.org – “Summercon is known as the world’s oldest (and drunkest) computer hacker convention. While it has been held in many places around the globe, it has called the ATL home for the last two years. We’re happy to inform you that it will be held in ATL for 2009! Other cons may try to tell you that they will be ‘informative’ or ‘ground breaking’. We at SummerCon can only promise you the time of your life and an opportunity to meet life long friends. If you happen to learn something, we take no responsibility. Please stop back frequently as the site will be updated constantly.”
- Shakacon @ www.shakacon.org – “The Shakacon security conference is a laid back conference where industry, government, academia and independent experts will get together to share knowledge and experience in one of the most beautiful places on Earth, Hawaii. “
- Hacking At Random @ www.har2009.org – “an international technology & security conference. Four days of technology, ideological debates and hands-on tinkering in the Netherlands.”
- RSA Conference @ www.rsaconference.com – “RSA Conference is helping drive the information security agenda worldwide with annual industry events in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Throughout its 19 year history, RSA Conference has consistently attracted the world’s best and brightest in the field, creating opportunities for conference attendees to learn about IT security’s most important issues through first-hand interactions with peers, luminaries and emerging and established companies.”
Once again, if you think I missed a great one, feel free to mention it in the comments below.
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