Hackers of CypherCon — Season 1

Aired 11 June 2018 • 63 min

In a time when tinkering with technology was a guarantee for ridicule and torment, a small group of curious explorers were connecting to computer systems, traversing the telephone network, and occasionally causing mischief. Speaking at CypherCon 3.0, Joe Grand talks about previously unheard stories of his early days as a hacker, phone phreak, and troublemaker, following a rebellious path towards the eventual redirection of his passion to serve the greater good.

Aired 28 June 2018 • 44 min

A self-taught hacker, modder and maker Benjamin Heckendorn - better known as Ben Heck is host of element14's The Ben Heck Show, a weekly web series in which Ben tackles fun and interesting projects across a wide range of topics. In this exclusive CypherCon 3.0 key note presentation, Ben discusses his beginnings, where he is today and how you can help hack a better tomorrow.

Aired 7 July 2018 • 43 min

Exploring the forensic methodology and tasks using free open source software. We won't be focusing on what tools are available, the focus of the presentation is explaining the methodology and where these tools fit in to the process to get the job done.

Aired 3 August 2018 • 41 min

This talk will be about hacking/phreaking in the late 1980's, early 1990's, and what the scene was like back then as compared to present times. Tips and tricks that were considered cutting edge back then, and some tricks that still work today. The general attitude around hacking, and hacking 'groups' has matured and evolved over the years, and this talk will give a snapshot into some of the origins of how we got to where we are at today. This will be a talk that touches not only on technical aspects, but also on social aspects of historical hacking.

Aired 17 August 2018 • 46 min

Brice Williams will look at some common cryptography usage errors and why popular libraries often fall short. He will also discuss nuances such as backwards compatibility, FIPS 140-2 validation, and weak standards such as JOSE/JWT that contribute to the overall confusion. Advice is also provided to ensure more secure cryptographic implementations are used.

Aired 31 August 2018 • 29 min

Anita will present some ideas about how three communities with different incentives, yet the same goals, can work together to shorten the time to discovery and overcome many of the obstacles that impeded progress in the sciences centuries earlier.

Aired 14 September 2018 • 40 min

In this talk, we'll be exploring how wireless communication works. We'll capture digital data live (with Software-Defined Radio [SDR]), and see how the actual bits are transmitted. From here, we'll see how to view, listen to, manipulate, and replay wireless signals. We'll also look at interrupting wireless communication, and finally, we'll even generate new radio waves from scratch.

Aired 28 September 2018 • 51 min

Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) enables defenders to operate at attacker speed by codifying detection and response expertise into automation playbooks. We will examine the core components of SOAR, skills required to design and implement it, common use cases in detection and response, and potential opportunities for security control testing in a defense-in-depth environment.

Aired 12 October 2018 • 28 min

David has found some pretty stupid security mistakes. Blatantly overlooked controls, or flat out lazy system admins. David will show real-world examples of misuse & abuse, and improper data handling of passwords inside application code. We must remember a breech in one security system, can lead to a breach on another system because of the implicit trust relationships we build to get the job done.

Aired 26 October 2018 • 21 min

Learn how mushrooms are medicinal and doing some amazing things like fighting cancer, boosting immunity, improving cognition, etc. In this presentation learn which compounds mushrooms produce that are medicinal and how you can easily grow them at home. We'll review the latest research from clinical trials and unveil the low cost, high yield techniques gleaned from anonymous mushroom cultivators.

Aired 9 November 2018 • 34 min

"Read between the lines" usually refers to one's ability to infer hidden meaning from text. This talk will look at the tools and efforts needed for "Text Mining". Using data mining techniques to infer meaning, misconceptions, or hidden agendas from common documents. Learn a general understanding of the process along with a list of tools & services to start text mining right away.

Aired 23 November 2018 • 53 min

Espionage is the practice of secretly gathering information about a foreign government or a competing industry, with the objective of placing one's own government or corporation at a strategic or financial advantage. Presenting case examples of military and industrial espionage, Judy illustrates how tricks of the spy trade are parleyed against ordinary individuals every day.

Aired 7 December 2018 • 39 min

United States military veteran Ken Grigas talks about his time in service during the "Cold War" between the Unites States and U.S.S.R.

Aired 21 December 2018 • 54 min

The past decade has made it clear that threats of cyber attacks on Industrial Control Systems (ICS) is real, and poses a fundamental risk to our way of life. The demand of ICS security professionals far exceeds the supply. Mark and Lesley of Dragos Inc. will provide an overview of some great ways to learn about the operational and technical aspects of ICS networks without breaking the bank.

Aired 1 January 2019 • 58 min

The human body is terrifyingly vulnerable. With the rise of novel gene-editing techniques and our increasing knowledge of genomics, we are forced to confront the idea of a microscopic enemy. This talk will explore the not-so-theoretical aftermath of an unchecked pandemic of unknown origin, the monsters we created in our own medical hubris, and the ever-present threat of bio-terrorism.

Aired 18 January 2019 • 20 min

Sequestered, cordoned off, separated, even out of touch. These words have been used by plenty of non-infosec folks. From Dev teams to Admins, Sales people and more, we get looked at as these mystical people who say nO! The people who are stopping others from doing their job. Maybe it is time for our team to take a different approach...

Aired 1 February 2019 • 50 min

New developments in Hashcat have brought some new WiFi attack techniques to light. We've taken concepts from classic WiFi attacks, added a little special sauce, and created a whole new attack vector for WiFi devices everywhere. All it takes is a friendly introduction and a little cracking time to gain access to protected networks. Come get some code and that uneasy feeling of being vulnerable.

Aired 15 February 2019 • 23 min

Steganography is the practice of hiding a message "in plain sight" inside an image, video, sound, text, or file. The practice goes back centuries, and in recent years has seen a rise in use for digital watermarking. It can be used for communication, leak prevention, or copyright protection. We'll look at techniques, analysis, and detection through the lens of digital watermarking.

Aired 1 March 2019 • 37 min

In 2016, 791,820,040 data records were breached in the United States, which averages two breaches per American. France, Canada and Taiwan also encountered breaches above or near their population levels - or double it. This begs the question: are we doing and spending enough for security? This study of ethical risk considers how to calculate risk and engineer solutions for this new environment.

Aired 15 March 2019 • 31 min

Tim Medin discuss the dumbest red team tricks and hacks encountered over the years. We are going to take the A out of APT, because so few attackers really need to use advanced techniques. We'll also discuss the simple defenses that make an attacker's life much more difficult.

Aired 29 March 2019 • 43 min

Even when the right crypto primitives are chosen, subtle programming mistakes can lead to issues with the efficacy of the encryption. This presentation is aimed at helping developers avoid common cryptography pitfalls when encrypting sensitive data by giving guidance on what algorithms to choose and identifying common implementation issues observed in real-world applications.