How to avoid getting burned at Black Hat, destroyed at DEF CON or blindsided by Bsides

It's that time of year again and the world's white, grey and the occasional black-hat hackers descends into the fetid hell that is Las Vegas in August for a week of conferences, community conflabs and catching up with old friends. What started as a bunch of friends hanging out in a cheap hotel has grown into the largest …

[Swampie]

And no mention of which after parties are worth going to; who has the best hospitality suite ( with open bar and hot food ); and of course, any good raffles/ drawings for good Swag!

[Mayday]

Don't Touch My Shit

"they are the ones who cover off their USB ports. Seriously, just don't leave your hardware unattended."

I wont leave my lappy/phone etc unattended anyway, everyone knows theft can be a problem, but if I catch anyone touching my shit and/or trying to plug into a USB port or touching my keyboard while I'm looking the other way then the response will be a high five in the face with a conference chair.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Don't Touch My Shit

"...then the response will be a high five in the face with a conference chair."

Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

Developers! Developers! Developers!

[Glen 1]

Re: Don't Touch My Shit

I only regret that I have but one upvote to give!

[chivo243]

Re: Don't Touch My Shit

better yet, leave your good shit at home... bring some burner goods with no data on them. Set up one time use email and chat accounts, don't use them again after the confo...

WTF are we a bunch of nOObs here?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Don't Touch My Shit

Wouldn't it be more fun to have lifted someone else's data at some point previous to the conference (someone famous and controversial if poss) and then load your burner kit with that*?

*with suitable editing of course

[Robert Carnegie]

Re: Don't Touch My Shit

Miniature robot crab that runs around the conference plugging near-invisible Bluetooth adapters into anything that looks like a USB port.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do people still go to these things when they are held in the US?

Would think most people would avoid them, given the Feds habbit of arresting people

[hplasm]

"...given the Feds habbit of arresting people"

It's a big Pentest, getting into the country!

...and back out again -which is probably more worrying.

[EnviableOne]

Re: "...given the Feds habbit of arresting people"

Just ask MalwareTech ......

He'll not be going to Vegas any time soon ...

[baud]

I'd guess most attendees are from the US in the first place

[Keven E]

Survey says

It's likely the feds are co-opting the surveillance *overload that is installed for every square inch of every location in LasVegas to catch pics, etc of everyone there... bring *them all together... save time, process later...

[DeeCee]

Reverse usb killer that fries anything plugged into it masked as laptop?

[Psmo]

A real flash drive.

[jake]

This previous attendee's advice ...

... is to not bother. Lost Wages is a pit of shit, designed to separate fools from their money. There is absolutely nothing available at ANY conference in Vegas that would entice me to visit the shit hole again.