Hacker Conventions Ranked By Bandwidth-Per-Visitor

An Anonymous Coward writes "Ever wondered how much bandwidth you will get at a hacker con? This web page tells you how much. It shows the total bandwidth and bandwidth for each visitor for all the recent hacker cons." It looks like Defcon attendees get the short end of the stick, while those at metarheinmain chaosdays are practically swimming in bandwidth. There are a lot of other cons (a few examples listed here) which I'd like to see added to this list.

Comments

How much does it matter anyhow?

[Arainach]

You'd have to be pretty crazy and/or desperate to risk using the provided bandwidth at DefCon (or any hacker con) for that matter. Regardless of how much faith you may have in the people running the network, you're surrounded on all sides by people who would like nothing more than to steal your information. While at DefCon, stay away from the ATMs and if at all possible stay away from the network entirely.

Re:How much does it matter anyhow?

[Eil]

I can't tell if this is a troll or not, but I'll bite either way...

You'd have to be pretty crazy and/or desperate to risk using the provided bandwidth at DefCon (or any hacker con) for that matter.

I don't think you understand much about hackers or hacker conventions. The conventions tend to have the best network management and security possible, period. That's what these people do all day long. For most of them, it's their job to make things secure so of course they're going to put more effort into it, especially with their friends hanging around.

Regardless of how much faith you may have in the people running the network, you're surrounded on all sides by people who would like nothing more than to steal your information.

Sheesh, let me guess, you check under your bed for hackers at night before you go to sleep?

First off, it's universally accepted at all hacker cons that you don't attack the infrastructure put in place by either the con or the hotel. Doing so will just ruin it everyone. It's the kind of thing that will get a person banned from both permanently.

Second, hackers do not want your information. They mainly care about exploring and exposing weaknesses that will allow less scrupulous elements of society to steal your data. (Namely, fraudsters and most federal governments.)

While at DefCon, stay away from the ATMs and if at all possible stay away from the network entirely.

The advice to stay away from free-standing ATMs is always applicable, but I have no sympathy for someone who sends sensitive information over an insecure channel no matter which network they're on.

I don't get it.

[SoapBox17]

Color me stupid, but I don't understand why anyone would care how much bandwidth per atendee is available at a hacker convention. You don't got to *do* hacking, you go to learn about hacking from people in the same building (thus requiring little to no B/W). And from what I have heard about Defcon you are best to not bring any of your own devices at all, lest you end up hacked yourself and on the wall of shame.

Re:I don't get it.

[wik]

Put another way, the bisection bandwidth between participants at a decent conference should be high. The bandwidth external to the conference really shouldn't matter.

There are much better ways to get an internet connection which don't involve spending hundreds of dollars to get into a hotel.

Re:I don't get it.

[flirzan]

You don't got to *do* hacking, you go to learn about hacking from people in the same building (thus requiring little to no B/W).

You have clearly never been to defcon, and/or miss the point of the con altogether. Sure, there are great speakers giving talks about important and relevant topics. Some of them are even useful...

But the larger part of con the for a lot of the attendees is to get together with like-minded individuals and...wait for it...hack.

Here are some examples of the hacking that went on at this year's defcon. The Lost@con Mystersy Challenge results aren't there, and as a participant I can tell you that it required breaking crypto, circumventing physical security measures, debugging code, hardware hacking skills, and trick-or-treating, among other things. I don't know what your definition of "hacking" is, but it should probably include a few of those.

This also doesn't mention some of the cool things going on in the lock-picking village, the hardware hacking village, the wi-fi village, etc...

And from what I have heard about Defcon you are best to not bring any of your own devices at all, lest you end up hacked yourself and on the wall of shame.

Most people I know wipe and reimage their machines after spending any time at all on the defcon network. They call it the most hostile network environment on the planet for good reasons. That being said, the Wall of Sheep has absolutely nothing to do with being "hacked", it simply displays usernames and (partial) passwords for people who are too stupid or lazy to use encrypted protocols. If you show up at a hacker convention and can't be bothered to use TLS or SSL for your email, you deserve to be shamed.

Location

[Vertana]

Location plays a major part in how much bandwidth is going to be available. Beyond being just dependent on the ISP based on location and what companies are available there, you also have to look at which building it is being held in. DEFCON may have gotten the short end of the stick because the owners of the building they used would only allow so much. Not that a lot is needed (at least in comparison to how many participants are there)... nobody exactly goes to DEFCON to torrent an HD movie.

Re:First Post!

[spazdor]

I was too slow! Goddamn this lousy con wifi access!