This thread is transplanted from Twitter before I delete it there:
I want to tell you a story, but doing so is bit of an OpSec fail so I am struggling with whether I should or not. So let's just agree that I don't need to be OpSec shamed or OpSec 'splained for one of the details in this story.
Do you have a beverage? You'll need one. /1
Aug 15, 2020
Replying to
@RayRedacted
This last weekend was DEFCON. This is the world's largest, important hacker conference. DEFCON is the Rose Bowl of hacker cons- it is the granddaddy of them all, and one that you must attend.
It is usually held in Las Vegas, but this year was held online. /2
Aug 2020
his year the volunteers for DEFCON itself (called "Goons") and the various villages volunteers faced enormous challenges, because pulling it off virtually in the "Spirit of DEFCN" would be a monumental task.
Long story short: it was a phenomenal success. /4
I am proud to say I volunteered in several capacities for the first time at DEFCON, spending most of my time helping with resume reviews, speaker prep, or as a volunteer speaker ops person in the "Blue Team Village" /5
(SIDENOTE: volunteering for the Blue Team Village was one of my favorite DEFCON experiences EVER, because the content and the staff was just absolutely incredible). /6
But anyway.... because I was so super super busy last weekend, I have spent several hours today playing "Catchup" on the
@defcon
youtube channel watching some of the talks I missed. /7
I was actually watching many of these on my apple TV, and multitasking. Here is a bit of my youtube history. /8
At some point, I had to leave to go work on my podcast, so I basically just walked away from the apple TV. /9
90 minutes later, from my office, I hear my good friend Jayson Street giving a talk on the apple TV. Then I hear another one. Then another one.
This can't be right. Why would the DEFCON channel play five Jayson Street videos in a row, going back like 9 years???? /11
I thought it was particularly weird, because I didn't get to hang out with Jayson this year, not in person and not even on Discord or Zoom, because I never made it to the DEFCON villages VR area (I wanted to, but just like DEFCON prom, I never quite made it). /12
Did Jayson Street hack my apple TV and is now playing a prank on me? Did he social engineer my youtube creds, and thought it would be hilarious to play 6 videos of his own back to back?
He and @elkentaro
are famous for their pranks, and this was obviously an epic prank. /13
Well, it turns out it was not a hack and it was not a prank.
It was simply my son walking by and seeing hacker videos, and becoming interested in one of them "suggested" in the sidebar with the title "Steal Everything, Kill Everyone, Cause Total Financial Ruin!" /14
So long story short: my son is now apparently interested in social engineering, and I just learned that his allowance has already been tripled and his curfew will no longer be enforced.
Thanks, Jayson!
@RayRedacted you did it! 👏 👏 👏 read the whole story by following the thread. 😊
Aug 15, 2020
There is a rich history at DEFCON that once you benefit from the con, as your career advances you eventually give back.
You can do this by speaking, volunteering, organizing and helping local DC groups, being active in one of about a dozen hacker charities, etc. /3