undercover at a hacker convention (DefCon)

[@vibrantchill7212]

There are a ton of "ethical hackers" and they make GOOD money. A lot of hacking is actually done with the purpose of improving systems. Ethical hackers are hired by companies to poke holes in their cyber security system so they know how they can strengthen defenses. I would honestly say the minority of hackers are malicious lol

[@thewhitefalcon8539]

There's also just people who like to see inside things

[@marocat4749]

I think the gay furry hacke even hacked that atomic plant thing with the intent, bloody have a better security. We dont know if they were gay thou and 2025 is about the security of democcracy?

[@Paputsza]

yeah, but there are enough unethical hackers to steal people's information 5x over.

[@fh11235]

there are also a lot of white hat hackers that do not make good money 😩 the input of work required before you hit the "ok we'll pay you" level is very very high. people do it because they care.

[@sadmermaid]

Pen testing

[@hellohologram]

In regards to furries and hacking, it reminds me of that photo with all the furries on an airplane where someone replied, ‘I object to that many Furries being on the same airplane because if there were an accident it could basically cripple the American IT industry in an instant.’

[@chryslerchic2383]

I think about that statement way too often because it's probably definitely true 😅

[@BDBD16]

I believe it was Thor.

[@SnoFitzroy]

@@chryslerchic2383 "probably" lmao It's more true than anyone comprehends. We're in all the most prestigious fields and we OFTEN outnumber the normies (whomst I like to call "skinnies" because it's funny and sounds derogatory) in those fields, especially if it's related to technology at all. It's almost like unfairly socially outcast individuals find solace in fields that most people don't think about or respect...

[@VVilde36]

@@SnoFitzroy as a fellow furry I am disappointed in your use of skinnies as derogatory, when we go so out of our way to be body inclusive here... Normies is fine! Literally anything that doesn't humiliate people over their bod would be acceptable, and considering what we go thru I would think you get that?

[@sundhaug92]

There's even a furry-event at defcon

[@ellie1639]

Lockpicking is a fun hobby, what's more interesting is how terrible most locks are. Lockpicking Lawyer shows so many broken in 30seconds

[@randomtinypotatocried]

It was one of my favorite things I was taught when still working in emergency services

[@quillclock]

Mcnallyofficial also just puts locks to shame.

[@gauner1312]

it is very handy as well. especially in emergencies

[@marocat4749]

Dunno you could always say you like magic tricks and , related?

[@otakujennii]

His account is gold ​@@quillclock

[@ecoonrad4753]

The people thinking the FBI were going to show up and shut it down is kinda funny to me considering its the 32nd one, like if it was going to go down I think some 3 letter agency would've put a stop to the con by now

[@gargoylekitty]

If anything they’ve likely got attendees

[@tcbobb1613]

FBI actuality sends people to Defcon to network and other things like that.

[@jdpruente]

It's why Spot the Fed is an official thing at Def Con.

[@notarabbit1752]

Cybersec people from the FBI attend. Sometimes they give talks and stuff.

[@RandoWisLuL]

@@jdpruente its fun too

[@DieAlteistwiederda]

Honestly being more worried about kpop stans than hackers is just logical to me. I don't know why hackers would ever hurt me specifically why even breathing wrong could already make me the target of a bunch of kpop stans in a second. The average hacker will never be out to get me specifically. Kpop stans are way scarier to me.

[@RandoWisLuL]

"the avarge hacker will never be out to get me" THIS. and most are really cool people. Lots of the white and grey hats and even black hats simply love to break stuff to see if they can lol

[@muihs]

i feel like youre underestimating your value

[@marocat4749]

Also i imagine at an official hacker convention, you are rather shown the risks and how to avoid them, than being hacked. Also whitehat hackers are good. Which i imagine most there are?! are gay furry hackers grey, they are based too.

[@dorkchops]

kpop stans have doxxed me when i was 12 bc i said "BigBang needs a break): they sound tired" and a blackpink song was "a collage of the old western hits they heavily sampled" (something that was said by older stans) meanwhile a few hackers have tried to help me get into my sister's laptop after she passed so we could find evidence for her case

[@CDN_Bookmouse]

Spoken like someone who's never had an incel decide to ruin their entire life for rejecting them. Kpop stans are just normally-skilled people who might be insane. Hackers can take their insanity and destroy your life. You're fearing the wrong things. May I suggest you listen to some relaxing BTS songs?

[@supersat]

The major issue with the room searches is what they were looking for. Not guns, but "hacking tools." This included soldering irons, breadboards, USB drives, routers, etc. It's like they don't understand what the actual threats are. The other issue is that they were doing more thorough searches, by hotel security, only in rooms booked through the official DEF CON block. That's not cool. DEF CON will likely have an official statement about this soon, since they did have an official room block with Resorts World.

[@MrNavidad]

If rooms.that weren't in the block were search, it was probably reported by the housekeeping. Properties remind employees to report anything suspicious when conventions like this are in town

[@supersat]

@@MrNavidad yes, the leaked internal document said that housekeeping would be performing visual searches for rooms outside the block

[@MrNavidad]

@supersat yeah. Honestly it properly happened on various properties though, not just the hotel partner in which the blocks were in.

[@TwoTreesStudio]

People who understand real-life security and safety threats never, EVER end up in the hotel industry. But that's irrelevant: Room checks at ceasars properties have exactly nothing to do with safety, they're about making a show for the bean counters that underwrite their slot machine jackpot payouts. "You let a bunch of hackers stay for a week and now there are 100x as many slot machine wins as usual?" Yeah, doesn't look good. So the obvious solution is to spend a bunch of money to generate a bunch of paperwork proving that they stole our soldering irons so they don't look negligent to the finance morons. EDIT: Oooooh interesting, sounds like caesars broke their contract with DEFCON this year and it turns out this was a Genting Group fuckup. Amazing that there isn't a single hotel megacorp that actually respects their paying customers...guess they're trying to make airbnb landlordzillas look accommodating LOL

[@shiba-inuanimeotaku]

I would honestly sue if they did a random search on me randomly if I was like naked or something

[@Aquerticus]

In my expirience furries tend to be very online people so its not that crazy that a lot of them end up getting interested in computer science/programimg/hacking/etc. In the same way a lot of furries end up getting into animation and stuff, the amount of furries that work in animated movies is staggering.

[@ian562ADF52E]

Lfgo siege sec

[@pixitje]

Hey! I'm a cultural anthropologist and you're doing my dream job/what I wanted to be doing before I became disabled! I specifically focused on subcultures (so many papers for school written about furries and Japanese fashion) and alternative sexual lifestyles. You're absolutely right that you should go get that degree bc you're already making so many great insights and you just...have that vibe already! I just started watching your channel, and it's really tickling my brain with everything that I love about anthropology and research. If you ever want to chat about the overlap of this stuff and anthropology, feel free to contact me! Thanks for doing what you're doing!

[@janecampbell4662]

I was thinking the same thing from the sociology side!

[@pixitje]

​@janecampbell4662 absolutely!! We overlap really well. I think the only reason I didn't double major was bc of the statistics requirement. 😂

[@janecampbell4662]

@@pixitje Lol! Opposite- I didn’t because of the foreign language requirement in the cultural anthropology major at my university

[@pixitje]

@@janecampbell4662 ahahah with our powers combined!! 🤣

[@bumblewyn]

+

[@nicksfurry7543]

I’m not a hacker but I write code for a living - Furries and hackers (and software engineers) have such large overlaps in part because they’re all highly online activities! Computers really enable the furry fandom to connect and when you’re spending a lot of time on the computer it’s pretty natural to branch out into other areas!

[@heartiko2681]

There's another unmentioned ingredient here, it's not shameful though 👀

[@krisatris]

I am learning I am amanda's worst nightmare because I went to defcon in 2022 directly after going to a loona concert 😭

[@ARantingMarch]

Ah, a fellow orbit/person of culture, love to see y'all. *Insert obligatory stan loona chant here*

[@crystal_lily_1208]

as a kpop stan, you can find us anywhere and everywhere. never underestimate our reach lmao

[@changlislover]

i didnt think id see a loona stan here 😭

[@spiritdraws1312]

Orbits r fr everywhere 😭

[@haroldo8789]

LOONA

[@ii_r_ftw]

For the security defcon was probably the most secure convention you will go to since walking next to you is all the people that design and test the actual security setups for everywhere else. having bag checks and metal detectors would just make it a game of what ridiculous thing you can get past security. And the idea of the FBI/CIA/NSA/TLA shutting it down is hilarious given they regularly send agents to see the current state of civilian security and do recruiting.

[@loridorii]

Honestly, my worry would be someone thinking that they could bring in a gun, shoot up the convention, and that would "save the world from hackers" somehow. Nothing scarier than someone operating without enough information imho

[@TwoTreesStudio]

I don't think people realize that there's significantly more fed overlap with defcon than furry even. Same goes for burning man...Paradise and BRC are basically FCC-free zones for the second half of august because there are people there who know not to know what's going on.

[@Montgomerygolfgator]

I know a few people in the hacking scene, and they are the kind of people who would skim your card, then immediately tell you they were able to and show you how to protect yourself. Then show you they deleted your information. Black hats inside the US, are kinda anti-establishment punk, not evil. The kinds that do malicious things to normal people are a very small hated sect of mostly state-sponsored hackers.

[@AerynKDesigns]

I feel like this was the only true part of the 90s Hackers movie. Just reasonable people doing silly stuff for their own amusement. Ofc what ZeroCool did as a kid wasn't okay, that's why he got in trouble, but after that.

[@Greenteabook]

As a former resident of Las Vegas two times over, *_don't move to Las Vegas_* If you don't like feeling like a neighbor to Hell for 2/3 of the year and freezing your ass off for the last 3rd, its not a place for you. I remember frying an egg in my front yard as a kid in the 90s, and the torrential downpour and flash flood that *ripped* my neighbor's front yard out and washed it down the street. Last year all of my outside plants froze, even the cacti 😭

[@globalgeode4363]

that genuinly sounds horrible and that's coming from someone who lives in CA. heat is no joke even here i couldn't imagine it being worse.

[@micahguillemette3344]

Canada is the same but the opposite lol

[@sarasthoughts]

Yeah it's almost like houses weren't meant to be built in the DESERT 😭

[@Hurricayne92]

As an Australian that sounds like living in the actual outback, like middle of the desert, which i guess you are in Vegas. And you guys think its bad here 😅

[@GothicPhantomZero]

The fact that US's information was hacked, you went to a hacker convention, and your sponsor helps protect from hackers. Feels like a trifecta of impossible odds and it amuses me.

[@zrobotics]

Her sponsor doesn't do anything to protect from hackers, it's an absolute scam product that likely increases your security risk. Definitely one of those youtube sponsor companies to avoid, since the potential harm is way worse than the established titles thing.

[@GothicPhantomZero]

@@zrobotics Gosh, didn't know that.

[@Frx0289]

​@@zrobotics not too clued up - how does it increase risk?

[@CyberNinja6969]

Not all "Hackers " are bad ones it's become a negative connotation. You have to know how to hack in order to be good at cybersecurity or Defensive work the other part does Ethical hacking and Penetration testing where we get paid to hack a company (within the rules they set in advance) and you show them all the weaknesses and how you got in and what to fix. The US information was scraped from a data-broker it was a data-breach not really "Hacked" and it has no relevance to the convention. If anything you can learn how to help keep your info private much better than her sponsor does.

[@pepegaDoge]

​@@Frx0289 I don’t entirely agree with the point that person is making, but I can clarify how these services work. First, what these services actually do: 1- Notify: They alert you when your Personally Identifiable Information (PII) appears on publicly accessible lists, whether on gray markets (legitimate companies buying and selling data) or black markets (criminal sources looking to misuse your data for illegal activities like identity theft or scams). This allows you to take action accordingly. 2- Contact: They reach out to legitimate companies on your behalf, exercising your right to opt out and request the deletion of your data. In that sense, the service isn't a scam. you do genuinely get removed from marketing and ad targeting lists, so it does serve that purpose What they DO NOT DO: They don’t stop malicious parties from accessing or misusing your data once it's compromised The Increased Risks: For these services to function you must provide them with a whole lot of your PII so they can search for it across the internet. This makes these companies prime targets for attacks. Instead of breaching random websites and collecting bits and pieces of information, bad actors may focus on targeting companies like Aura, where they can access more concentrated, complete sets of PII. In short, you're placing a lot of trust in a single company, hoping they won’t get breached or compromise your data in the future creating a potential single point of failure. To clarify, unlike zrobotics, I don't think it's bad that KZbinrs are taking these ad deals. There's no malice behind these products. My only concern is that many people may be misled into a false sense of security by them, same goes for VPN Adverts. Both products have legitimate use cases, but neither will magically make you completely safe and secure. It’s more of an audience awareness issue, not a case of influencers trying to push a scam product issue imo I want to add a few more "technical" points about the risks I mentioned. These risks can be technically mitigated by hashing the information on the client side and only storing those hashes in the company’s database. When new data appears on their radar, they can hash that data as well and check for matches. This way, your actual data isn’t stored on their servers, which reduces the risk of exposure in the event of a database breach. However, you still have to trust that these companies are adhering to best practices for data handling, and I assume they occasionally hire audit firms to ensure this. That said, this wouldn’t prevent an attack somewhere in the chain or a scenario where you’re served a compromised version of the service that skips the hashing process and sends your raw data directly to the bad actor. In that case, it would still be a single point of failure.

[@teddymasters1347]

You know, I was recently listening to someone talk about defcon (Luke from wan show), and I genuinely thought to myself "huh, it would be interesting to see swell talk about this. but she probably wouldn't go to that." I won't underestimate you again.

[@FeelingMimsy]

The reason there weren't constant security scans and bag checks at the event? Hackers understand the pointless stupidity of security theater.

[@RaroHi]

I like the new Swell lore drop. She was raised by a dastardly rogue father. and for clarity I do mean in the RPG class sense, not as an insult.

[@ZenobiaofPalmyra]

Her father is a knave and a vagabond.

[@Antimuffin]

It's so interesting to hear an outsider's perspective on this. By the way the photo thing isn't because people are doing something wrong it's because every single person who works in security is paranoid as heck. They all know way too much about how social engineering is done to ever put themselves in that position.

[@heyummrandommuch]

I wanna make that point that card and electronic payment only *may* have been a safety thing during the height of COVID, but only being card and electronic now (especially after we know COVID is airborne and air filtration and purification has NOT been made a priority) is simply a barrier for the very poor. People without homes who don't have a bank account and get by with cash only are completely gatekept from buying stuff from these establishments. It's ultimately just another way to fuck over the poor.

[@gauner1312]

here in Germany most of the people still pay with cash. I love it and I currently only have access to cash. so I would be totally excluded if I was forced to pay with card or electronic payment.

[@supersat]

@@heyummrandommuch I've noticed a trend here where places are going cashless largely to avoid being burglary targets. There might be some aspect of trying to discourage people from asking for money? There are several bank outreach programs here to help people get set up with free accounts if they don't already have one.

[@FigmentForever]

I simply don’t carry cash because of being harassed for my change or money in general. I donate to ecological charities & keep to myself, and avoid social contact as much as possible since I don’t trust anyone. I don’t even carry a credit card anymore since very few places don’t have tap to pay now.

[@gauner1312]

@@supersat you can discourage people asking for money by providing them their basic needs. if there are no homeless people, there are no beggars.

[@supersat]

@@gauner1312 I agree, but that is more of a society-level problem

[@DUCKDUDE4100]

One reason for the photo policy is that a lot of security specialists such as penetration testers attend these sorts of events and need to stay as unrecognisable as possible as part of their job. There's only one famous one I know of and that's Deviant Ollam who gives talks at Defcon.

[@TwoTreesStudio]

Yup, hands down the world's foremost expert and yet he can only do training because of his public figure. Funny thing...he posted in the comments on this video yesterday about how you don't need to throw your phone away after defcon, and some idiot is telling him he doesn't know what he's talking about...dude is getting completely roasted, it's comedy gold, really.

[@Giantkiller130-t]

what's so crazy is that Deviant himself replied in the comments here lol

[@emilyweaver]

I used to be a hotel housekeeper (in Washington state) and we were told that guests had a right to privacy in the hotel basically equal to what they would have in a rented apartment. We specifically had this conversation around 2016/2017 when ICE crackdowns were happening, and we were told not to give any information about guests to the authorities (or anyone else) or divulge who was staying in what room unless they showed us a court order. So i would be really surprised if room searches like this are legal, although maybe things have changed or are different in Nevada.

[@KatieTirrell]

It would definitely be state by state laws and Vegas especially cracks down on room checks since the Mandalay Bay incident.

[@TwoTreesStudio]

@@KatieTirrell Caesars Entertainment's habit of stealing electronics from paying customers during defcon predates Mandalay Bay by decades.

[@KatieTirrell]

@@TwoTreesStudio Caesar’s owned properties are notorious for not being the luxury experience they promise so that’s not a bit surprising.

[@supersat]

The badge won't hack your computer. (This is how you get CFAA charges.) In fact, you can download new firmware onto your badge from your computer, including firmware that runs multiplayer Doom!

[@RoseoftheWood]

Okay, well now I have to go so I can get a Doom badge!

[@KatieTirrell]

Of course it runs Doom 🤣🤣

[@endingwithali]

!!! I would have flipped if I saw you at DEF CON ! I didnt know you were going to be there. I just want to give HUGE props for your representation of hackers - not trying to sensationalize and demonize the community instead explain the dichotomy, and still be respectful. A few points to clarify for those reading comments and want to understand more: - DEF CON is not considered an industry conference. Sure, there are definitely industry sponsored things and are industry sponsors, but this is a community conference. this definitely leads to a different vibe. - LOCATION: this was the first year DEF CON was in the LVCC - it was contracted to happen at caesar's forum but there was a falling out of the contract (no one knows why). they probably had to scramble a lot of the convention functionality together to fit the old ways and function in general because of the newness of everything. tbh if you, swell, had gone other years, you would have had a much different experience. You probably would have talked about how crowded the hallways felt LOL - GOONS + SECURITY: goons are volunteers for the conference, including volunteers who's entire job is to do literal physical security for the event. (they're called soc goons). Part of their responsibility is to remove unwanted attendees, etc. So, removing the badge person from the stage is part of their duties. It's not easy to become a DEF CON volunteer - it requires a few years of attending in general + becoming deeply familiar with the community - so those roles are taken very seriously. - BAGS + SECURITY: just discussing Bag checking at def con would be highly charged with a lot of debate and community unrest - i think it's one of those things thats just not really discussed. DEF CON has dealt with bomb threats in the past, publicly. There was one at last year's event too. However, if there is anywhere in the world where these issues are well planned for and prepared for, it would be at a def con. the attendees aren't just computer focused too, but also physical security focused, security operations, etc. I can say with 99.999999999% confidence they have plans in place in case of major issues. - "PISHING" - there's probably 100000000 comments about this, but "PHISHING" is pronounced "fishing" not "pishing" - FURRIES + the side cons - def con has "side cons" too. They're not full fledged conventions like def con, but more like people getting together in a hotel suite they rent out and talk about their interests in combination with hacking. So the furry one is literally called FURCON. There are others too that exist, but these side cons are more like you get invited by someone who knows about it, some are extremely notorious (like furcon, gothcon, queercon, etc), its really a IYKYK kind of thing... like most things at def con tbh LOL I cant remember what else i wanted to say, but i did watch this entire video + react to it on my own stream (as a content creator focused in tech and cyber security who has attened many def cons) and we really enjoyed watching it! thanks for covering it!

[@penvegan]

Hak5!

[@Fyrelass542]

You mean if my company hadn't cheaped out, I could've run into Swell at DefCon???? I'm so mad now. Anyways, hope you had fun!!! It's a hell of a time and I really miss going!!!

[@lefton4ya]

Everyone is undercover at hacker conventions. Most of them are white hat hackers, some are black hat hackers, you are a chaos gremlin grey hat hacker

[@Giftedbryan]

This is in no way shape or form correct. I can tell you the names of at least three people that have been at DEFCON, without even having set foot in the convention center.

[@tcbobb1613]

It's mostly cybersecurity people who go that are not hackers.

[@jo4370]

​@Giftedbryan and can you tell me all of their online aliases? that's the undercover part. you don't know exactly who they are online or what all they do with their time. real world identities are less secret in in-person spaces for obvious reasons

[@bdd7881]

@@tcbobb1613 Eh. It's a combo. Quite a few cybersecurity peeps are hackers. There's quite a bit of depth to cyber/hacking.

[@BryanLu0]

​@@Giftedbryanit's probably an exaggeration to say everyone, but a lot of people are undercover. Obviously when well known people like Thor/Pirate Software or Luke from LTT go and post about it, it's obvious who they are. They are basically celebrities; they can't be anonymous

[@kenkin5863]

i'm pretty sure my dad went to the same convention, he works in IT, he was so excited to see if someone could get through whatever tech stuff he has. he has been waiting for years to go to it, he won an orca plushy for me in a game that was happening there.

[@Razkh1_91]

Thanks for coming to the con! I was super excited to see you walking in one day and was like "Shit, can't wait for this video!" 😂 Appreciate your perspective on it, that you felt safer than other cons (we are just regular people...) despite the lack of "traditional" security, and this video! Few minor errors with some things you said (Human badges vs inhuman badges, or that electronic badges are every other year, for example) but you got pretty much a great gist of the parts you were able to experience (there is tons more and it can be overwhelming) and it's mostly just not knowing some of the lingo/backstory for the con and the community (to be expected!) it was my 9th con this year and I'm excited to see people outside the community come, and more people showing interest in what is really a giant part of everyday life, even if people don't realize it. Hope to see you again next year even though you said you probably won't - if you want a guide/person to talk I'm happy to oblige!

[@Mango-Moods]

Love going to Defcon! Glad you went. I just keep my phone off the entire time I’m at the convention. Don’t trust the Wifi 😂

[@zrobotics]

Question- how do you participate? Or do you not? I've only been twice, and am a SWE, not in security, so my only professional interest is in writing semi-bug-free code. But aside from the lockpicking village and the talks, a lot of the participatory things are at least greatly benefited by a network connection. I've generally felt safer using my phone as my network connection and have bridged it's connection to my laptop when I've needed that vs using wifi.

[@its_clean]

​@@zroboticsI'd assume most people use burners of some flavor. I have a few spare phones set up with generic throwaway accounts and Google Voice numbers, mostly just as emergency backups for myself and my family. I know that doesn't make them truly secure, but there's minimal PII on them and zero accounts or passwords that overlap with anything containing my real personal data. I'd feel comfortable enough using them in an environment like Defcon, and switching back to my regular phone after hours and off premises.

[@Mango-Moods]

@@zrobotics I’ve attended as industry and spent a lot of time in the villages. Some panels can be interesting depending on the year and what topics are covered. Generally if you get hacked at defcon or blackhat, it’s more embarrassing than anything. There are some challenges that go around and that’s where someone might try to mess with you, but it’s usually not actually malicious. I just prefer to not take any chances myself. Plus it’s nice to be unplugged for a few days.

[@SandraWuerthner]

Wall of Sheep 😂 I had my stuff on a faraday bag and phones in the flightmode. I took them only out for pictures

[@AmaraJordanMusic]

“Do I have no decorum???” 🤣 This is going in my lexicon now.

[@arandomnamegoeshere]

Surprised that you hit DefCon - pretty cool. Hackers are just technologists. Almost everything you're doing right here, right now with technology has roots in hacking. There's a lot of mythos and subculture around it. But at its heart, its just folks who enjoy esoteric knowledge and understanding how things work. Sometimes applying that understanding to do goofy or cool things. Sometimes to bypass constraints. Sometimes to do crime.

[@cookingwithsilence]

You wouldn't look at a physical combat convention and say "oh all of these people are bloodthirsty". There would be a mix but the average person would just want to learn about defense by treating it as an artform. Similar to this, communities now need strong hackers just like with any other form of defense. You need professionals and amateurs and they all need to be strong.

[@supersat]

DCFurs has their own hotel suite/party, but they are not an official part of DEF CON itself. Queercon used to be independent, but they had a large amount of money go missing, so now they just hold official events inside cons.

[@SequentialSnep]

Furries are everywhere! In my opinion the security furs do get a fair bit of attention on social media for the work they do/vulnerabilities they discover. And of course, the artists and fursuiters are very visible to the public. But that's very skin deep. The lovely thing about being in the fandom is the variety of people I've met. Doctors, truckers, artists, teachers, gardeners, dog walkers, IT folks of every level, game developers, artists, cashiers, tattoo artists, photographers, full time parents, scientists, phd people etc. The list goes on. It's a melting pot for people that would I otherwise never have meet irl. Everyone walks a different path and it's amazing to be able to share time with so many different people from different walks of life.

[@Giantkiller130-t]

i always thought it was so weird that people hate on furries because most of the ones i've encounter are chill as fuck and also vibe with my personal, "do whatever the fuck you want, be proud of it and don't hurt others". It's just sad that people see things they don't understand and villainize it. As someone on the periphery of the furry fandom and the hacker subcultures, it's actually not all that much different. much love.

[@matthiashavrez]

I've been watching you for years and I NEVER thought you would actually attend a convention I would be interested in attending myself

[@lquail3814]

I go to DEF CON every year and have for over a decade now. It's the best.

[@Dee912]

I kept having to remind myself you were at Defcon.. not Defqon, the Dutch hardcore festival😭

[@wintercaptain]

It's honestly so great to see a KZbinr actually respecting public privacy at conventions

[@isaacribeiro6823]

0:14 me who has "friends" in both groups kpop is worse, because zealots are willing to go places and yes zealots exist in defcon too but, they are not world war z style are they?

[@wasabiwireless3322]

Howdy. DEFCON RF Village staff member here. I loved hearing your persepective of the event. Im sorry you did not stop by my village we do cool stuff. But that is the reason for the villages for you to find you interest and go geek out on that. I was def hassled at Resorts World for room checks. wild times we live in. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them as a multi year and multi hacker conference volunteer and atendee

[@Nadia1989]

If I ever go to Defcon I'd definitely go with a dumb phone, an old digital camera, pen and paper. Edit: I don't know why people decided to pile on this comment. I'm not in touch with hacker culture (although I find cyber security interesting), and I didn't want to offend anyone.

[@RandoWisLuL]

I do believe what you described is in the FAQs lol

[@isaacribeiro6823]

just go analog

[@DeviantOllam]

this silly advice comes up year after year and it's always comical to hear. this is exactly the wrong advice but people keep repeating it constantly.

[@isaacribeiro6823]

@@DeviantOllam you know your comment is more useless then the advice it self because you are trying to look like you know what you are doing but people who know what they are talking about dont say your advice is silly they say why is silly. thank you for been 100% useless

[@forgef0r634]

Totally unnecessary to go that low tech. What Swell did was perfectly adequate. But, to get the value out of Defcon admission, you absolutely want to have access to your devices. A major feature is to actually connect to the wifi. If you get the security certificate and create an account for the secure wifi, you are fairly well protected. I wouldn't be opening my bank account on it or anything, but having that access is important if you want to actually participate in contests and workshops.

[@pillescasdies]

You should not be able to have more than 10 furries on the same plane, if anything happens you’d lose a lot of CTOs.

[@Mads97415]

Wheneve I hear the word "hacker" the first thing I think of is Lexs' line from Jurassic Park where she says, "I'm not a computer nerd, I'm a hacker" haha

[@its_clean]

This is a Unix system!

[@ChampagneKanyon]

Love the little insight on ur dad. Growing up I was always obsessed with horror movies and SFX makeup and props, film shit. My mom was graduating cosmetology school at 18 when I was in the womb and I now own a giant poster from Psycho that they always had hanging up in their bedroom when I was growing up. Things sometimes just make sense. 🖤

[@anxietyirl]

actual hackers have a pretty strong code of ethics, much to the surprise of many

[@hak5]

Thanks for making a great video about DEF CON ! Explaining hacking tools to non-hackers is hard - we understand the sentiment and we make those hacking tools youre talking about. Awesome coverage, and loved your insights.

[@znewt99]

The fact that hak5 found and commented on this video is awesome

[@DuelingDexperts]

Swell, when you do one of these in the future, where you choose not to do b roll, you should totally hire an animator to make some animated b roll. Then we still get your audio description and some fun visuals based on your description.

[@literallyanythingelseother]

Oh man my old college professor went to that and it's definitely some headassery. I remember her talking about some attack happening to her while she was there or something. Would not be on that wifi or Bluetooth and id be on airplane mode lol

[@noral1841]

Airplane mode!

[@realtalk6195]

That's funny.

[@katieobrien3505]

Next video Amanda posts is going to be “I went to a super villain Con so you don’t have to” girl is crazy I love it tho

[@jasminmai3528]

I just noticed this month was your 10 year anniversary of your channel, happy anniversary! ❤

[@AuroraCBorealis]

So, my spouse leads a team of ethical hackers for a private cyber security firm and they go to present and compete at DefCon every year... so my eyes are GLUED to this screen to see if he shows up in your footage here!!! (Super low odds, but I'm stoked to watch!)

[@JessicaFlowers-c4m]

Ofc the one time I'm volunteering at a conference Swell is at I'm hiding in the back for most of it. You missed true Linecon, peeps start lining up 5pm Wednesday for badges

[@tcbobb1613]

Wow, I can't believe you went! The conference is right up your alley because it's big. Lots of things to do and see.

[@tcbobb1613]

They called it Hacker Summer Camp because it's a week-long security conferences. The first one is Called BlackHat it's mainly for the leadership and general business people who need to know about wants going on in the world of information security/cyber security. Second is Defcon, which is basically the overall community one also their is BSides Las Vegas, which is a lot smaller DEFCON

[@michaelmagnani3463]

19:20 I worry about America when you expect security "check my bag just once"

[@thegreyeyedmonster]

I just moved to Europe from the US and the lack of security everywhere still throws me because I'm not used to it

[@Gilbertitsnotfrench]

First time I’ve ever heard “phishing” pronounced like that

[@codeguru5024]

Great video. Love to see your take on Defcon. I've never been to it, but it is on my bucket list. One small thing: "phishing" is pronounced like "phone".

[@Leo-sd3jt]

Heh, I saw you walking around Thursday afternoon but didn't really have anything to say other than "oh hai" so I've been waiting for this vid for a bit. Anyways, time to watch the video!

[@RoxxsSoxxs]

I find all the types of hacking fascinating in how some are physical and not digital. I do think its cool how so many can come together and i liked that the con still let that one dev in to enjoy the con and let him be walked off stage as per his request, hopefully that gets sorted out soon.

[@sunshinerain1577]

Omg, I've always wanted to learn to pick a Lock. Shoot a gun and pick a lock are two skills needed

[@ericawarren]

I learned how to pick locks at DefCon and started to really get into it. I'm great at it now, oh the things you learn in life.

[@Giftedbryan]

I have not ever been in vegas, but I learned from Deviant, and LPL

[@issecret1]

Where? What kind of life are you living?

[@sunshinerain1577]

@@issecret1 lmao Canada hahah

[@cloudplop9419]

My husband is a white hat hacker and works for a firm that send him to this every year. Not scary. But he also won’t use WiFi while there. Lol

[@LockpickingDev]

Glad you enjoyed Defcon and glad you enjoyed the TOOOL Lockpicking Village 😀

[@rhiannonrising]

DefCon! "The FBI is going to show up." Yeah, there was an episode of X-Files about it 😂

[@Giantkiller130-t]

yes and ironically enough that is how Mulder ended up meeting the Lone Gunmen!!!

[@wantmyfritos1]

I love the pronunciation of psshing haha

[@PhantasmPhoton]

pronouncing phishing as pishing instead of fishing is adorable I love it

[@mandc20022]

I'm glad you do because it annoys the heck out 9f me lol

[@fabdragon2071]

Yay! I am glad you went! I liked that you have been invloved with F1 and TwitchCon but is cool to see you reporting as an outsider in a unique convention.

[@americantoadsarecool]

I work in tech and I have always wanted to go to defcon! I’ve been too scared, mostly of embarrassment since I am only a few years into my career. Not cool enough yet but someday lol. I am happy to hear your electronics came out unscathed. Knowing Just being careful seems like enough which I appreciate.

[@TheUpgradeSolution]

Just go if you can afford it. As long as you don’t pretend to be a badass no one is going to care at all that you’re new. We all start somewhere and id say 90%+ of the people there get that.

[@pr0ntab]

Most tech enthusiasts love to tell stories to newbies and answer questions and just gush about their passion (within reason we're not talking about self incrimination here) so don't worry you would be totally fine and probably be super entertained if you can go you should go

[@Giantkiller130-t]

i'm in the same boat. I don't even really have that much formal education in computers--everything I know is self taught. I know quite a bit, i can code and stuff but I always feel like i'm not good enough to go to a con like this even though it's a dream of mine. I hope one day we both can work up the courage to go.

[@comosaycomosah]

@@TheUpgradeSolution this dude if i could afford it id of been there years ago with or without a "career"

[@lillyrose1873]

"If i had less anxiety I would be a criminal" that is a vibe

[@tristan7216]

There are a fair number of pen testers in the hacker community, Deviant Ollam being one of the more famous ones (he's got a YT channel and he did an ep about the defcon badge drama recently). These folks break into companies to test their security, and they might not want their pictures floating around, though Dev's picture is all over and it doesn't seem to affect his job performance.

[@Rex-u5v9w]

You should make a wall of badges for the background and put the cat tetris as the centerpiece, it would look freaking awesome.

[@laurabohlander5985]

There's a great podcast called The Darknet Diaries that talks about cybersecurity and hacking incidents and it's super interesting

[@josey1917]

I was going to be at DefCon this year as a plus one with my dad. The company he works for/with got reached out to because they wanted him to come to DefCon. Unfortunately due to a health issue he couldn't make it so my dad had to decline. So I am happy to see this video so I can see what we missed. 😂

[@ronmaxwell]

I remember going to my local Barnes and Nobel (83rd and Broadway, NYC) a couple of times a month to see if the new copy of 2600 magazine was in.

[@Giantkiller130-t]

oh my god. I used to go the union square one for the same reason!!!!

[@sisterfister7891]

_Shout outs to "PirateSoftware" Thor! His dad is the WOW Guy, they worked at Blizzard and Thor now streams and has a Ferret Rescue going on (which is called FerretSoftware if you wanna sleep to his OST and watching the furry chicken noodles exist 💜_

[@Tawnos_]

Welcome to the con! The wifi is pretty damn good now. The "don't turn on wifi/bluetooth" advice is a bit outdated, nobody's burning a 0-day there. Hope you stopped by the HHV/SSV and learned a bit of soldering, too!

[@Generic_ytv]

Hacker voice: "im in"

[@datDrowningFish]

Not a hacker, but I have lots of furry friends. Often, the Skill one focuses on is based off childhood interests, then the furry community is discovered. After that, the blossoming fur gets access to other people with knowledge and resources AND a (usually) safe place for discussion. In short, you become a hacker and a furry about at the same time, with being a furry making knowledge exchange easier in most cases.

[@womacks8675309]

Love this. I know Darknet Diaries has at least a couple of episodes that discuss Defcon. Including 1 about a woman that went and got into Social Engineering from it, and changed her whole career path. I would guess Malicious Life does too, but am less sure of that. Also, I need a crossover now PirateSoftware and Swell.

[@BrakeSecEd]

I just did a stream on my defcon experience (my 1st defcon as well)...

[@womacks8675309]

@@BrakeSecEd Checking it out. Thanks.

[@TheMuddyMilesTrain]

love this channel, ty for your undercover work.

[@stale2665]

Pretty optimistic of those hotel employees and security guards to think that they could possibly identify which device in a hacker's room could or could not cause any harm to the hotel's guests. They wouldn't recognize a '"hacking device" if it bit them in their asses.

[@Yugophoto]

A family that gifts each other lockpicks is absolutely the kind of people DEFCON wants to attract

[@izwe794]

17:23 swell video essayist arc incoming

[@AmaraJordanMusic]

I love how into that fight at the boxing match you got. 😅

[@syntax976-2]

Thank you for the review! as a long time DEF CON attendee and now a contributor and artiest. i want to say thank you for not showing pictures of crowds and coming in to this review open minded and honest! i hope you had fun and showing the hacker culture in a true and open light! i hope you made it to some parties and enjoyed some of the other official and unofficial events! good review!

[@ShannonMorse]

Welcome to the defcon club 😅😅😅

[@joshjames25]

This thumbnail is a 10/10 😆

[@invaderliz]

Ooh I have friends who went to Defcon back in the early 2000’s. They tell some wild stories about the parties there.

[@christophergronhagen]

The last few years I suggested you should go to DefCon. This year I couldn't make DefCon, and you go. Damn. I hope you had a good time and turned your wifi and bluetooth off.

[@mariag7364]

Im really gobbling up your content recently 10/10

[@Grace-er9ep]

Father Swell really is a swell father I wish my dad would've given me a lock picking set that's badass and really helpful. I got a basic swiss army knife which was nice but I mostly only went to school and occasionally hiking and it was too small to cut branches in the path so not very useful. Imagine the shenanigans if I'd learned lock picking

[@que278martinez5]

Awesome! I can't wait to see how the experience was. I have always liked watching those presentations that they upload to KZbin. It is interesting. Things have so little security everywhere.

[@vegemite_toast]

"what I could've been if I were better at math" hahaha Loved this video Swell! Please go to the next one and get some interviews where you blur peoples faces. Its fascinating!

[@nolanjohnson2009]

I love how people only really stepped in after the knockout.

[@BertyBread]

Imagine the ad is for a locking picking set. Perhaps even Ifixit.

[@V530-15ICR]

0:51 I have heard about DEFCON some times but never VCON or D23.

[@randomtinypotatocried]

The room checks is kinda terrifying this is now becoming a thing

[@tcbobb1613]

The problem with room checking for DEFCON is that who go to Defcon have equipment that look like they are planning on setting off an bomb or remotely setting off an bomb. Like having 4 laptops in the room, an antenna

[@stickboyST]

I haven't been to Defcon in a couple decades, but it used to be at a hotel just off strip called the Alexis Park. They had a small convention center and a decent sized lobby and a huge pool out back, but the whole hotel was probably about the size of one of the other convention centers.

[@iantos1813]

Regarding the intersection of hackers and furries - a LOT of furries work in IT, to the point that major IT firms will have lotteries to see who is allowed to attend conventions that year because if everyone goes they will be too short staffed. Additionally, some furries will take it upon themselves to intentionally not get on the flight they know a lot of other furries will be on incase there's a plane crash, so that the IT industry isn't crippled. Yes, these are both actual situations, and no, I do not know *why* so many furries work in IT and STEM industries, we just do.

[@terryo4352]

Omg! I think the Social Engineering people you heard speak were on Darknet Diaries! The stories they told about tricking security guards and penetrating fences... It sounds like SO MUCH FUN!!

[@vincentdarkrosrayne]

damn. hackers really do be persecuted just for existing lol. when i go to EVO DefCon was going on directly next door and i've never worried and have never had anything happen in all these years of going at the same time. it sucks that the people that go to DefCon are looked down on just because of their hobby or job. most of which is ethical or at least for fun.

[@jody5661]

I was a hacker before a furry. Being a furry helped us explore who we were, as a furry, a hacker, a creature, and a human

[@isabellamaria5632]

You should go to the gathering of nations pow wow in Albuquerque, New Mexico next April, it’s not a convention but you’ll probably like it!