By Neil J. Rubenking — PC
The trainings component of the 2014 Black Hat USA conference in Las Vegas has already begun. Press folk aren’t invited for trainings, but SecurityWatch will be there to cover the briefings Wednesday and Thursday. The briefings can be shocking. In past years, researchers revealed a technique to pwn any iOS device using a gimmicked charger, described a technique for mining your Twitter feed to create convincing phishing emails, and demonstrated an Android weakness that would allow hackers to Trojanize an Android app undetectably. And those were all part of the relatively sedate Black Hat; things get even hairier at the wild and woolly DefCon that follows.
The world’s best hackers flock to these conferences, people who live and breathe security and hacking. They don’t stop trying to hack all the things just because they’re at a conference. In fact, DefCon features a “Wall of Sheep” to publicly shame any attendees careless enough to get hacked. If you’re attending, you’ll want to crank up your paranoia and be as careful as possible.
