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DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

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

#261

Post by lolc »

photonthug wrote: post #224
monkeywork wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to check a calendar and see the current year - the days of Casinos' roughing up card counters is long long long gone. Might be great for your screenplay or fan fiction but doesn't match reality.

Strange that you can be so confident about this with private security when even actual police are sometimes involved in cases of excessive force, corruption, coverups. Besides, whatever your personal knowledge/experience is it can't be vast enough to prove a negative here, and only one counter example is needed. Regardless of the year I think you might want to reconsider your overly confident notions about fiction/re…

> and only one counter example is needed.

From where I stand, you'd need to show it's systematic. One single instance is not enough for me. Because your claims are general, as if they applied to many casinos.

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

#262

Post by waihtis »

alephnerd wrote: post #247
waihtis wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It was nothing carried out by Defcon in any way. You think insurance providers are capable of doing this level of analysis? They see "hacker conference" in which Defcon may still hold some notoriety in and decide it's a risk.

They are able to. I've worked with AXA and Chubbs before in this space. I don't think this was done because of cyber insurance They most likely got bumped to make space for a better paying corporate conference. Most vendors are now running a Cisco Live/AWS Re:invent type conference, and they've increasingly consolidated on Las Vegas because venue booking and block room booking is much easier there than in any other c…

> They most likely got bumped to make space for a better paying corporate conference

This is the occams razor explanation

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

#263

Post by Bluecobra »

GuB-42 wrote: post #227
sgjohnson wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And card counters.

Do they still exist? They have closed most of the gaps previously exploited by card counters, and continuous shufflers are everywhere. I think the only ones who can make money are those playing poker and are really good at it. That's because they are playing against other players and not the bank. They still have to beat the rake. I'm not even sure comp players, that is those who play to get non-cash rewards like tra…

Not sure if casinos still bend rules/give special deals to high rollers but it sure worked out for this guy:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/04/the-man...

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

#264

Post by eunos »

_cenw wrote: post #189
raldi wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out https://www.flightsfrom.com/explorer/LAS — particularly comparing its direct flights from all over the continental US to the same for other American cities.

That settles it, DEF CON in Dubai, London or Amsterdam. I vote for Amsterdam. Frankfurt also has the most international destinations (just not volume). (Probably not Dubai, considering a few speakers would be thrown out at the border - or worse if they get though. It's also artificially inflated because it's almost all transit traffic). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_airports_by_in...

Vote for Qatar since they offer most visa-free access.

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

#265

Post by vertis »

dsr_ wrote: post #216
vertis wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The post says they had to do significant work to secure another venue. While it's possible the author could be lying there is no evidence of this so we must, at this point, take them at their word.

Arranging a convention site contract is always a lot of work, even if (hypothetically) the Caesar's rep suggested that they try LVCC.

The convention has been in Las Vegas for decades so I suspect they know ALL the options anyway.

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

#266

Post by atcalan »

spacebacon wrote: post #165
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…

The simplest explanation is they don’t like hackers after their experience. So they push a bunch of hackers buttons with a last minute notice and prepare the honey pot to pen test their post ransom security posture and maybe in the process they find an amateur to pin it all on.

Cool. Drop kick a hornets nest in a zorb ball. What could go wrong? Not everyone attending DEFCON is getting 6 figures to red team, I suspect.

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

#267

Post by tempaccount420 »

alephnerd wrote: post #243
killjoywashere wrote: post #105

You know, why the fuck is DEFCON in August, in Vegas? Like, you know a nice place to visit in August? Kodiak, Alaska. Portsmouth, Maine. Sydney. List of places I would never want to visit in August? Vegas. Houston. Vegas. New Orleans. Vegas. Mumbai? Maybe. Baghdad? Definitely not. Also, Vegas. My friends in Christ, why, does anyone, think Vegas is a good idea in August?

Convention space and room blocks are fairly cheap to rent in Las Vegas. No other city in North America has a similar amount of space or options for low cost block booking. Also, plenty of DefCon attendees and sponsors are also attending BlackHat at around the same time, so it makes it easier to justify expensing most of the cost as an employee.

> No other city in North America has a similar amount of space or options for low cost block booking

Not even in Mexico? You know, the country that's part of North America? Why not just say America?

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

#268

Post by getoffmyyawn »

tptacek wrote: post #77
rockskon wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's not going to do so well for that at the LVCC given the distance away from hotel parties.

It was famously at Alexis Park for years, which might as well be the moon if you're at Caesar's.

I started going to def con before the AP and I feel now that the AP were def con's golden years. At least for what I like best about it.

It's nice that it has continued to grow and reach more people but it has also changed a lot from what it used to be to what it is now.

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

#269

Post by verandaguy »

verandaguy wrote: post #95
PedroBatista wrote: post #13

Not a fan of what DEF CON has become in the last years, so I selfishly hope it somehow "goes away" and reborn in a more technical and actual hacker note. Too many "security researchers", "staff engineers" and people playing politics. But I suspect they will have no problem finding another venue, sponsor money has been flowing quite well, so I wish them well.

I don't have a ton of love for politicking, but security researchers and staff engineers, a lot of the time, are people who either have a career in a really interesting area in infosec and can bring a lot to the table as teachers/presenters, or people who want to get into that area and who'd benefit massively from a place like DEF CON considering how accessible its talks, demos, and villages are to people of all skil…

I can't edit my original comment anymore, but I'll add: OG DEF CON stuff still happens, too. Parties, secret parties, parties that take a full day or two of codebreaking a badge to get to, demoscene stuff, drinking, public art, you name it, it's there -- it takes a back seat because DC does have to focus on mass appeal these days (I believe, because of its accessibility promise coupled with the number of people coming out).

I forgot these when I wrote my original post at 1AM :)

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

#270

Post by TrickyRick »

darkwater wrote: post #254
yreg wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that was true, the house wouldn't throw people out for suspected card counting.

If they threw you out, you clearly didn't outsmart them.

Not really, no card counter goes unnoticed forever. It's about making sure you get enough time to play when the count is high that you manage to earn money. If you're curious about the life of card counters I can't recommend this YouTube channel enough: https://www.youtube.com/stevenbridges
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