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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

#191

Post by nopeYouAreWrong »

wkat4242 wrote: post #131
dash488 wrote: post #125

After the impact of the MGM hack this year Cesars probably revisited their insurance on getting compromised. After the auditors and lawyers looked at all the risks they came across DEF CON and said no because of the wording of how DEF CON is marketed. Their choice was probably to drop them or loose coverage. DEF CON is listed as a "hacker convention held annually in Las Vegas, Nevada." where Blackhat is "Black Hat is…

Black hat is just one giant bunch of sales pitches. No I haven't been there but I've had to sift through recordings that my boss (who did attend) wanted me to look at because he was too drunk himself to do a proper evaluation. It doesn't provide information, it just provides sales suits a chance to blow their hot air :P If I'd ever go there it would just be an excuse to go to vegas to see DEF CON as well :P I work in…

if we're going with hot takes, I've watched a lot of DefCon vids and many presenters come off as outlandish arrogant. not simply smug, more "I am levitating above the normies."

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

#193

Post by michaelt »

wkat4242 wrote: post #126
andy800 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> for some reason 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. Just say nothing, part amicably, everyone moves on without drama. With that said, they probably weren't lying. Most likely, months after ponying up $10 million to a sophisticated international hac…

> Most likely, months after ponying up $10 million to a sophisticated international hacking group, Caesars Entertainment probably doesn't want to invite some of the world's best hackers to stay and meet at its flagship resort. Most Def con visitors would be white hats so that would be a bit disingenious. I would expect most attendees to behave (reporting issues after finding one) Especially considering they just got…

Def Con has 30,000 attendees. And maybe 99% of them aren't assholes.

But in such a large group, there's always going to be some people who'll decide to muck around with their hotel room's locks or something like that.

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

#194

Post by well_actulily »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #162
serf wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

As I understand, in Las Vegas, as long as you do not use a device to aid with card counting (mind/mental only), it is legal. Is that still true?

Sure, it's "legal"—but so is them banning you from playing blackjack or tresspassing you from their property.

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

#195

Post by philshem »

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…

It may have happened to physicists in 1986, although the APS conference was back in Las Vegas in 2023

https://qz.com/work/1249513/was-a-convention-of-physicists-r... (2018)

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

#196

Post by technick »

nimos wrote: post #12
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 doubt they would cancel a contract already in place for that reason. Not renew the contract - sure. But canceling an already scheduled event because of low revenue per guest doesn't seem very likely to me? Or maybe it was some sort of ongoing agreement and canceling it was effectively "not renewing".

I will need to dig up the archives from DC 27 when the deal with Caesars forum was officially announced, but if memory serves me correctly DT said it was a 5 or 10 year contract. So unless there was some verbaige in the contract that allows Caesars to cancel for any reason, they're going to be cutting DEFCON a check.

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

#197

Post by Klonoar »

busterarm wrote: post #101
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…

All of the more recent years that I did DEF CON I was with large groups of people going to high end restaurants and (ab)using the hotel bars. In fact the hotel bars were always packed. My suspicion is that Caesars is trying to do something like play with headcount. Late summer is not just a weak time for conferences but DEF CON needs a ton more space and a ton more human babysitting across that space than any other c…

IIRC EVO only moved because they outgrew the space/slot they'd been working in. The other reply to you outlines Black Hat.

I very much doubt there's any conspiracy here.

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

#198

Post by fragmede »

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?

How about Denver?

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

#199

Post by mikeflynn »

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?

It started there initially because a bunch of hackers wanted to hang out together and the cheapest way to do that was to all fly in the Vegas in August. It’s tradition but also still somewhat true for the reasons you articulate.

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

#200

Post by fragmede »

paxys wrote: post #96
tptacek wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you expect them to be that kind of resilient? It's just a conference brochure site.

> It's just a conference brochure site. That’s exactly why it should be resilient. A fully static text-heavy site can serve basically unlimited traffic on a free host or a $5 VPS these days.

Why would you even host it? Throw it on a CDN and make someone else deal with serving it.
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