Episode Details

Thirty years ago, a young hacker named Jeff Moss (aka The Dark Tangent) threw a party in the desert of Nevada to commemorate the demise of a bulletin board system called PlatinumNet. Unlike the other handful of hacker conferences in that time, this one would be on the West Coast and open to everyone. Over the next three decades, DEF CON would become the preeminent hacker convention for the US (possibly the world), drawing upwards of 30,000 attendees. Along with its more-corporate spinoff Black Hat and related BSides conference, the back-to-back conferences are affectionately referred to as Hacker Summer Camp. In today’s show, I’ll walk down memory lane with Jeff, discussing the ups and downs he’s experienced and delve into what this has all meant to him, personally. Oh yeah… and also the incident involving strippers and hacking the power grid.

Further Info

• Amulet of Entropy badge: ​https://amuletofentropy.com/ 
• DEF CON documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUhyeY0Fsvw
• My first trip to DEF CON: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2021/08/11/understanding-hackers-hacking/ 
• Last year’s interview with Jeff Moss: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2021/08/16/on-a-dark-tangent/ 
• Hackers, book by Steven Levy: https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Steven-Levy/dp/1449388396
• Legion of Doom (LOD) vs Masters of Deception (MOD): ​​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hacker_War 
• SATAN tool: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_Administrator_Tool_for_Analyzing_Networks
• A brief history of hacking: https://encyclopedia.kaspersky.com/knowledge/a-brief-history-of-hacking/ 
• Cap’N Crunch whistle: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2630646 
• Subscribe to the newsletter: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/newsletter/new-newsletter/
• Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1484261887 
• Become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons 
• Donate directly with Monero! https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/contact/ 
• Would you like me to speak to your group about security and/privacy? http://bit.ly/Firewalls-Speaker
• Generate secure passphrases! https://d20key.com/#/

Table of Contents

Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show.

• 0:00:31: Hacker Summer Camp
• 0:03:30: pre-interview things of note
• 0:05:31: DEF CON, the early years
• 0:12:02: How had DEF CON changed since the beginning?
• 0:16:08: What’s the closest DEF CON ever came to ending?
• 0:24:44: Why is DEF CON so full of shennanigans?
• 0:26:49: What has DEF CON meant to you, personally?
• 0:32:02: Thoughts on the DEF CON culture