national geographic on the hackers life (defcon)

Via the infosecnews mailing list, I belatedly saw this excellent story about DefCon from a National Geographic reporter.

This is an example of what happens every year at the DefCon hacker conference in Las Vegas. Passionate hackers present their knowledge and capabilities, often times skirting the very fringes of legality. However, if you think that this is a convention for geek criminals, then you’ve been watching too much NBC.

I really wish the article had been Wired-feature-like in length (i.e. 5 more pages), but still the author gets his point across and is worth the quick read.

The attendees at DefCon are pioneers on a myriad of levels. Socially they challenge convention on every strata. Fashion-wise there are no boundaries and norms, just personal styles that clothe intelligent minds. In the realm of the internet, communications and other security genres, there is no equal.