The term DEF CON comes from the movie WarGames, referencing the U.S. Hacker friends from far and wide got together and laid the foundation for DEF CON, with roughly 100 people in attendance. Jeff decided to invite all his hacker friends to go to Las Vegas with him and have the party with them instead. However, his friend's father left early, taking his friend along, so Jeff was left alone with the entire party planned.

The party was planned for Las Vegas a few days before his friend was to leave the United States, because his father had accepted employment out of the country.

ĭEF CON was founded in 1993, by then 18-year-old Jeff Moss as a farewell party for his friend, a fellow hacker and member of 'Platinum Net', a FidoNet protocol based hacking network from Canada. CTF has been emulated at other hacking conferences as well as in academic and military contexts (as red team exercises).įederal law enforcement agents from the FBI, DoD, United States Postal Inspection Service, DHS via and other agencies regularly attend DEF CON. Capture the Flag (CTF) is perhaps the best known of these contests and is a hacking competition where teams of hackers attempt to attack and defend computers and networks using software and network structures. Other contests, past and present, include lockpicking, robotics-related contests, art, slogan, coffee wars, scavenger hunt and Capture the Flag. Contests held during the event are extremely varied, and can range from creating the longest Wi-Fi connection (aircrack-ng) to finding the most effective way to cool a beer in the Nevada heat. The event consists of several tracks of speakers about computer- and hacking-related subjects, as well as cyber-security challenges and competitions (known as hacking wargames). The first DEF CON took place in June 1993 and today many attendees at DEF CON include computer security professionals, journalists, lawyers, federal government employees, security researchers, students, and hackers with a general interest in software, computer architecture, hardware modification, conference badges, and anything else that can be 'hacked'. DEF CON (also written as DEFCON, Defcon or DC) is one of the world's largest and most notable hacker conventions, held annually in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Defcon levels