What is DefCon 101?
With the ever expanding landscape of DefCon: the amount of Games and Contests, the Parties, the Villages, the vast array of Art and Music... All that is going on and to do can be quite daunting to New People beginning their first DefConian adventure. There are even many long time DefCon attendees who come for the talks but may feel overwhelmed or intimidated by many of the other activities happening at the Con. DefCon 101 hopes to change that by providing those people with the information they need to help take the first steps of their journey in the world of DefCon and the DefCon Community.
<strong>HighWiz</strong> lives in a pineapple under the sea and has a penchant for buggery. He enjoys pushing the bounds of decency to their break point and tries not to take himself too seriously. HighWiz also goes by Grindelwald the Dark Wizard - is the maintainer of the Unofficial DefCon FAQ as well as is busy constructing the world's largest Hard-on Collider.
Bio to Come
<strong>Russr</strong> has been involved since Defcon 6 and in his humble beginnings served as a cable junky and adhoc security. After a couple of years, he took responsibility for the vendors, helping to arrange their space and collect table fees. Somewhere around Defcon 12, Russ had an epiphany and took over the organization of the contests and events, ensuring that the POCs for these activities had the resources they needed to help the con go off without major mayhem ensuing. Want to know about all the delicious contests and events at Defcon? Russ is the man. That's why he is here to school you about these Defcon delights.
<strong>Karen Maeda</strong> aka Miss Jackalope holds a degree in Information Systems and has been heavily involved with the professional security community for over 9 years. A veteran of Defcon and other security conventions, Karen has co-taught multiple classes around the world in lockpicking, no-tech hacking, social engineering, and various other methods to expose risk. Her long-term assistance with the various incarnations of the "Lockpick Village" has helped accelerate the growth of the physical security community and taught 1000's of people the art of defeating lock mechanisms. Currently, she is a Security Engineer at Lares, where her daily tasks range from education to active engagements with clients.
<strong>Deviant Ollam</strong> While paying the bills as a network engineer and security consultant, Deviant Ollam's first and strongest love has always been teaching. A graduate of the New Jersey Institute of Technology's "Science, Technology, & Society" program, he is always fascinated by the interplay that connects human values and social trends to developments in the technical world. A member of the Board of Directors of the US division of TOOOL (The Open Organization of Lockpickers) Deviant runs the Lockpicking Village at DEF CON and ShmooCon. A fanatical supporter of First Amendment rights who believes that the best way to increase security is to publicly disclose vulnerabilities, Deviant has conducted lockpick training sessions at Black Hat, ToorCon, HOPE, HackCon, ShakaCon, HackInTheBox, SecTor, CanSecWest, and has even had the honor of lecturing the cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point. His favorite Amendments to the US Constitution are, in no particular order, the 1st, 2nd, 9th, & 10th.
<strong>Frank Thornton ("Thorn")</strong> As a network security consultant, Frank likes to do bad things to bad networks. RFID and wireless networking are two things he finds especially interesting, and he tries to break those a lot. Frank has been a past contributor to two ANSI Standard workgroups, helping define transmission standards for law enforcement data.<br /><br /> When he's not actually breaking and fixing networks and wireless devices, Frank can usually be found writing about them. He has authored and co-authored nine books related to security, wireless networking, and RFID, and is always amazed and humbled when people tell him that they read and actually liked the books.
<strong>ThePrez98</strong> Michael Schearer ("theprez98") spent nearly nine years in the United States Navy as an EA-6B Prowler Electronic Countermeasures Officer. His military experience includes aerial combat missions over both Afghanistan and Iraq and 9 months on the ground doing counter-IED work with the U.S. Army. He is a graduate of the Department of Defense's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) School as well as other survival and outdoor training. Michael is a licensed amateur radio operator, an active member of the Church of WiFi, and enjoys spending time outdoors. He lives in Maryland with his wife and four children.]
<strong>Ryan (LosT/1057) Clarke</strong> LostboY is the creator of the LosT @ Con Mystery Challenge (often referred to as "Mystery Box"), one of the most unique and challenging contests at Defcon. His ideas lead to the creation of the Hardware Hacking Village, which he co-created with Russr. Academically his research has been focused on: Computational Mathematics, Cryptography, Electrical Engineering, Robotics and Embedded Systems, East Asian Languages, Number Theory, Network Security, and others. Currently he is the Professor of Robotics and Embedded Systems for the University of Advancing Technology. When he has time he maintains LostboY.net and attempts to improve his contact juggling skills to the level of DA ;). BTW, he's got your number: Feel odd? Dead last, decoded...
<strong>Noid</strong> has been involved with computers for over 20 years. Noid began playing with computers at the age of 10, operating a BBS out of his parents house. Ever since then noid has taken an interest in how technology works and the security aspects relating to its use. noid is one of the organizers of DEF CON, LayerOne, and is a founding member of the Black Lodge, a hackerspace operating in Washington state. noid has spoken on security topics and privacy issues for the Association of Internet Professionals, Microsoft, the University of California at Irvine, and at Cisco. noid is fascinated by fire, dangerous with tools, and curious about this emotion you humans call love.
A 10+ year veteran of DefCon, <strong>Siviak</strong> has managed to talk himself past security, drink himself past door-guards and party himself well past the brink of exhaustion... And he never does it alone, he's always made sure that more than a few of us were along for the ride.