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Monday Aug 6

Returned Rental Car in Indy
Breezed through security
Checked Pineapple and Pearls for reservatio when Funsized is visiting, they are closed all the days he is in town! I have the WORST timing for restaurants.
My flight was delayed, and as a result I missed my connection in PHX
Scrambled to rebook, couldn’t on app, was trying online while also getting in line at customer service when I got notice they automatically rebooked me.
Got to Vegas, later than planned by a few hours but that meant I met SO at car rental, lovely to be together again
Got car then errands - Wholefoods (water, snacks, coffee, cola), total wine (scotch, gin, vodka), CVS (safety pins)

Check into hotel (Tuscany) always a lovely place

Get speaker badge, My first speaker badge. My First convention speaker patch was on stage at penn and teller with I Am The Cavalry (tesla coil dress)

I participated in a dry run (give your presentation and get feedback)
Absolutely valuable to get at equipment etc. learned i needed a bandaid for the next day for the wireless mic.
I of course had laptop issues (totally dead battery) luckily SO came to save me with his laptop (and i was prepared with presentation on usb stick)

Properly planned: local & USB and Cloud - PPT, PDF & Google Drive presentation. Also Printed. Had assorted A/V cables (dongle adapters and audio 3.5mm - that seems not good what is the proper way to feed into presenter mic). Didn’t have: charged battery (presentation podium no power) didn’t have: tape

Got my Feedback, and snacks
Missed rock (donor) badge pickup

Headed back to room and got dressed for Urbane party https://urbanesecurity.com/
Amazing and lovely party with great friends and people

Never enough time with friends

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Tuesday August 7

Slept in

Website said my talk was this day

Went and got lunch and confirmed talk was the next day

Hung out with friends, tweaked presentation

Skipped Risky Biz Diana happy hour

Went for a bit to the BSides Speaker Reception, got a mini drone (gave to friend allan who had a kidlet to share it with)
Then headed to Frankie's Tiki Bar to say happy birthday to Pancakes

Got to talk with Amanda for a bit which was nice

(no subject)

Wednesday August 8

Too nervous to eat lunch

Regretted the sleep and relaxing wondering if I should have made more slide edits

Gave my presentation, band-aid’d mic to head, should have used sticky not the pad b/c it moved and lost sound on occasion.

http://agileamazonv.blogspot.com/2018/08/what-is-agile-and-how-can-i-use-it-well.html

Blacked out for it really I was so nervous, don’t remember it but watched the video.

Q’s were all from friends, audience was mostly friends.

After the talk chatted with my mentor and some friends and one random new person which was nice about my talk.

So I went to 0 presentations at BSides - i didn't even look at the schedule, is being a presenter always like that or was I failing? Going to look at the Posted videos soon, might be worth it to pay for youtube so i can download them to watch on the train?

After my talk, worked on my next talk, which I totally should have worked on more. Next time, like my mentor for BSidesLV provided me I need an accountability partner for talks.

Then I popped off to the Airline I am the cavalry panel because my SO is very interested.

My friend Allan swung by.

Then was time to get changed and head to HackerFoodies.com dinner at Stack steakhouse, only a few of us, but it was tasty (a bit too much pepper) and good conversation. (A few RSVPs were no show).

After dinner SO tried to check into Caesar’s

I wore a wedding gown, because I am me.

Then the BSidesLV Pool Party and some HackerSwan.com

We got 3 congratulations (who was the groom) through the night, one “s that a wedding gown” one “did you get divorced” and one “are you going to swim in that”.

Jack looked lovely as Bjork.

Again, never enough time to see friends, and never seeing all the friends.

Enjoyed the party until it got too full, and headed to sleep. Slightly agitated our Caesars room was still not ready.

On Being a Bluetooth Wireless CTF Fox

What my day was like. Woke up, headed down to see @IHackedWhat up chattering at a panel and giving information about the particular challenge.

I wandered the room. Then wandered the hall and other villages. Then came back to see hte panel. Sitting there I then confirmed I was not active, snafu, something with the way I sat? Went to bathroom and activated and confirmed signal.

Vegas times below.

2:45pm contest went live on twitter

I came back chatted with friends and then was checking out each table asking questions, I honestly am interested in CTFs but also know not great signal from device.

Wandered through the wall of sheep, caught up with friends in hallway, wandered back in again, and out again.

3:15 PM - Got ID’d as “are you the fox” twice verbally, but they could not say which *type* of fox, so I said sorry doesn’t count.

3:30pm - Then while on phone texting I did get activated. I waited. No one claimed. Waited. Then went back to wandering.

4:00PM - Finally after wandering more got activated and IDd and then we headed up to the table for points. The contestant who found me was totally doing a search pattern and got like 4-5’ from me before activating and IDing me.

Why did we want to know:

Article by pentestpartners over exaggerated the risk of IOD devices.
IOD has been trying to get specific data and details around the actual threat model/risk so they can be prioritized correctly. The entire project is about finding and assessing vulnerabilities and getting device and app makes to fix/improve security. So obviously best to concentrate on the worst/most impact first.

Personal background:

Using a bluetooth headset and bluetooth toys I can say my headset works across the apartment and the toys barely work nightstand to corner of bed.

Wireless CTF Contest Context:

Fox and Hound is a standard CTF game and standard terminology. Read more here if you are unfamiliar. Note the idea is to use your devices to find a specific device. They might be stationary (in flowerpot) or mobile (on people). Usually something like a radbeacon or a tile.

Although one furry volunteered to be a fox, they are NOT related. @InternetOfDongs did sass it was a “fox tail” as the person/device being hunted is a fox, and this is a “tail” oriented (he was thinking the plus with actual tails because i want one and we talk about it). It can be taken other ways and did seem to rub people the wrong way, sorry about that,

Concerns expressed online:

Word choice

As noted above, OK maybe should not have used the word tail as it bothered some people. Sorry.

Boundaries/Consent

This was optional, those contestants uncomfortable with activating the device did not need to as there were many challenges and many different foxes. I am pretty sure some teams never even considered/wanted to participate in this specific challenge and so did not.

Me, as the fox, only participated because I was OK with it.

Participants (contestants, fox) all knew what the device was, what would happen when activated and could choose to participate or not.

Possible activation of similar device on non contestant/victim.

Likelihood of someone having the exact same device (which was specified in the challenge), active, at DEF CON convention space without knowing it was a risk (from contest or non contest attendees) was low.

In addition known attenuation and decrease of range also limited any attacks to close proximity (which is what we were trying to establish, the exact range).

Targeting people / Promoting predatory behavior against attendees

As stated contest goal is more about hunting devices not people. This was one tiny part of a much larger contest and I feel it is/was unlikely to have altered or influenced anyone's feelings.

We definitely thought about “who” would be willing in gender neutral way. Male would have been just as possible as fox. Douches would still have found alternate ways to be douches to women and make them unwelcome in the space.