DEF CON is canceled... No, for real. The in-person event is canceled. We're not joking. It's canceled. We mean it

Annual Las Vegas hacker gathering DEF CON has officially called off its physical conference for this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. In what was pretty much a foregone conclusion, the organizing team today said the in-person event would not be held in 2020. It had been slated to take place in August. This comes after the …

[Tomato42]

Which DEFCON

Does it mean they entered DEFCON 1 or DEFCON 5?

enquiring minds demand to know!

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Do you have to dial into their zoom call

Or do they just dial into yours?

[Brian Miller]

Re: Do you have to dial into their zoom call

Everybody dials into Zoom calls. Those are boring. So are yours. Could you please put something interesting on your computer?

[fajensen]

Logging onto DEF CON ... sure, but, not with my own computer or anything I want to be travelling with after.

[stiine]

Well, at least there won't be any presenters arrested at the airports this year.

[Marty McFly]

But why the bother??

Every time I have ever traveled to Vegas for any sort of a conference, I have always come home with some sort of a bug. Always. Every time. Talk it over with other Vegas Conventioneers, you will find it is a common issue. It goes with the territory.

Since going to Vegas and getting a bug is the expected norm, why would this event be canceled?

Paris, because I know what you are thinking. But it is not those types of bugs and transmission methods I am referring to.

[J. Cook]

Re: But why the bother??

It's not vegas, it's pretty much *any* convention where people from different area of the world are flying into.

It's commonly known as 'Con Crud"

[Daniel B.]

Re: But why the bother??

True; while I managed to avoid it, I finally came down with the CON-Flu in the aftermath of DEFCON26 (Aug 2018). It also managed to hit me right during my return flight. Dealing with customs and waiting for baggage claim at my home country while getting sick is not a nice experience.

I do wonder if regular con attendees have developed a super boosted immune system?

[Daniel B.]

DEFCON is cancelled

Which means that the long running joke is now cancelled?

In other news, thousands of hackers fly into Vegas assuming they’re being punked with the DefCon Cancelled announcement, only to find out its true this time around!