Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

forum.defcon.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 408 posts

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#61

Post by serf »

smt88 wrote: post #37
c0pium wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are certainly a lot of DefCon attendees who think that this describes them. In my observation they are all very incorrect, usually humorously so fortunately.

My first thought was that GP was saying DefCon attendees would be counting cards, which is an effective and legal way to beat the house[1] (until you're caught and banned from the casino). 1. https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/nightlife/2016/04/...

'legal' has no meaning here when it's against every single casino policy in the world.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#62

Post by [deleted] »

daveguy wrote: post #48
smt88 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first thought was that GP was saying DefCon attendees would be counting cards, which is an effective and legal way to beat the house[1] (until you're caught and banned from the casino). 1. https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/nightlife/2016/04/...

Casinos in Vegas use too many decks and reshuffle frequently enough that there is no edge gained over the house when card counting.

[deleted]

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#63

Post by ackbar03 »

Lammy wrote: post #38
nodesocket wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doubtful, I'm sure it's related to the constant attacks against their infrastructure they must defend against (let's be honest, I'm sure Caesars is not defending successfully). The juice just ain't worth the squeeze. They have a business to run, and the risk of having a bunch of drunken and high hackers who happen to be the best in the world running amuck is not their idea of a good corporate event.

Dunno if it has anything to do with it but they did get haxx0red last year at the same time as MGM, except Caesars paid up and MGM didn't. Hotel room cards, casino play cards, etc were down for ten days at a bunch of the MGM-owned properties (a.k.a. the half of the Strip not owned by Caesars) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MGM_Resorts_International#Las_... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-13/caesars-e..…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oM7-Jsa168&t=111s

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#64

Post by sircastor »

tkems wrote: post #8

I find this strange but not surprising. I've heard of speed bumps in the past related to 'hackers in town' and I wouldn't be surprised if it comes out later that it had something to do with it, even if unfounded. I think overall, having that many 'hackers' in town makes people overly paranoid. I wonder if the ransomware incident last year played a role in this decision? [0] I'm guessing they wouldn't announce it for…

> I wonder if the ransomware incident last year played a role in this decision?

This makes more sense to me than the other explanations. Probably coupled with an underinformed general manager or company president.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#65

Post by jrockway »

NanoYohaneTSU wrote: post #20
mrandish wrote: post #4

I suspect Caesar's dropped DEF CON because the DEF CON attendees likely have a fairly low "avg revenue per attendee" yield because fewer of them gamble compared to the avg Vegas conference attendee. They also probably spend less on high-end restaurant dining and bar drinking inside the hotel. Since the pandemic Vegas has had a pretty strong resurgence in general and this may be a sign that Caesar's is doing well enou…

Not everything is about money or the bottom line. Sometimes it's about politics. Vegas takes a loss on so many things. Nevada has grown more and more corporate over the years. This move doesn't surprise me at all.

What are the politics? One of the richest and most profitable industries on Earth wants to have a conference where they show slide shows to each other. Really not much different than any other conference, and probably more ethical than most of them.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#67

Post by komali2 »

caymanjim wrote: post #42
taywrobel wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without robust and easily scaled infrastructure in place ahead of time, an organic DDOS is one of the most difficult situations to mitigate. Not much can be done in terms of traffic shaping, rate limiting, or bot detection.

I agree. Protecting against DDoS attacks is incredibly difficult. I'm just enjoying the irony of Def Con, the premiere computer security and hacking convention, not being able to handle traffic. To be fair, I don't think they crashed; I saw a "sorry too much traffic try later" type message. Still amuses me.

I guess it's funny, but the attendees don't necessarily represent the organizers. The best hackers in the world may be in the building during Defcon but I don't think the Defcon organization itself necessarily employs them.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#68

Post by jrockway »

andy800 wrote: post #59
lolinder wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To avoid any legal liability. Stating a specific reason would open them to possible "breach of contract" depending on whether the act(s) were significant enough or justifiable, based on the contract terms. This is how it works for at-will employment, but it would be a very weird contract that allows backing out only if you don't say why you're backing out.

Let's say Caesars states, "we just got hacked and, as has been reported in every major newspaper, paid $10 million as ransom. We have reason to believe one or more attendees of DEF CON were part of that group." How does making this statement this benefit Caesars in any way? Now DEF CON can demand some proof of this claim, or sue for defamation, or state that without proof, Caesars isn't acting in good faith, whatever…

I mean, attendees of DEFCON can hack Caesars even if someone else owns the projectors used for the Powerpoint presentations.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#69

Post by cratermoon »

mrandish wrote: post #4

I suspect Caesar's dropped DEF CON because the DEF CON attendees likely have a fairly low "avg revenue per attendee" yield because fewer of them gamble compared to the avg Vegas conference attendee. They also probably spend less on high-end restaurant dining and bar drinking inside the hotel. Since the pandemic Vegas has had a pretty strong resurgence in general and this may be a sign that Caesar's is doing well enou…

I heard a joke a tech conference people in Vegas many years ago. It goes something like "people who go to tech conferences in Vegas bring one shirt and a $20 bill and never change either." So yea, programmers generally aren't gamblers because they know enough math to know the house always wins.
Post reply on HN