Whipped Cream Difficulties

DEFCON 23 starts Thursday. Black Hat USA 2015 starts tomorrow.

Once again, it doesn’t look like I’m going to make it out to Vegas. Once again, I’m going to try to cover things from 1,500 miles away. It isn’t completely clear to me that anyone other than me is getting any benefit from this, but I’ve been doing this for long enough that I have a hard time stopping now.

Here’s the schedule. There are several presentations that are already getting media attention:

• “When IoT attacks: hacking a Linux-powered rifle” got a write-up in Wired, and notice from Tam. I’ll admit that I’m interested in this research, as it represents the intersection of two of my interests. But given the current state of TrackingPoint, is this more like “knowing how to hot-wire a Tucker Torpedo” than a Ferrari Enzo?
• “Hacking Smart Safes: On the ‘Brink’ of a Robbery” also got a Wired writeup, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen coverage elsewhere; I just can’t find it right now.
• And Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek got a lot of press coverage off of their “Remote Exploitation of an Unaltered Passenger Vehicle” paper. Another Wired article (I know, I know, but this one is first-hand.) NYT article on the recall triggered by Valasek and Miller’s research. I have to admit, I’m impressed; usually, only people named “Nader” manage to get 1.4 million cars recalled.

So what would I go see if I was there? What sounds interesting to me?

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