Each one is a custom designed and typically built by a team of like-minded individuals who are happy to give up their free time to wow their peers. Nearly every subset of Def Con has its own badge: Queercon, Tiaracon, Telephreak, car hacking and others. But even in non-electronic years, there's no shortage of technology around attendees' necks.īy the end of the conference, many attendees will have multiple badges. There's still a contest - it just involves less soldering and flashing lights. Previous years were playing cards on PCBs and titanium. One year there is an electronic badge (like this year's) the next, there's an analog badge. When the conference founder Dark Tangent (aka Jeff Moss) recruited him, nearly every security conference was doing an electronic badge and Moss wanted something to set Def Con apart. 1o57 demoing the Black Badge for became the main designer/builder in 2012 after the success of his annual Mystery Challenge badge contest. This year's included an articulating eye worm that popped out of a black skull that Clarke designed with Hollywood special effects artist Rick Galinson.īy subscribing, you are agreeing to Engadget's Terms and Privacy Policy. The prize for solving the conference badge is free attendance for life, but more importantly, the coveted Black Badge. "Anywhere creative I can think of to stick puzzles, hints, clues, games that kind of thing, I can get injected all throughout the conference." I'm on the lanyards, in the program, on the wall signs." Clarke said. "I permeate all the aspects of the conference. In addition to the quickly discovered Konami/Contra cheat code that could be entered into the eight buttons above the eyes, each variation of the badge (Human, Press, Security Goons, Artist, Vendors, CFP, Contest and Speaker) had specific clues and cyphers printed on them.Ĭlues are also hidden around the conference. Terminator-esque skull design, but the conference badge was more than just a bunch of blinking lights and a homage to a 1980s action film. In addition to the quickly discovered Konami/Contra cheat code that could be entered into the eight buttons above the eyes, each variation of the badge (Human, Press, security Goons, Artist, Vendors, CFP (the folks that pick the speakers), Contest and Speaker) had specific clues and cyphers printed on them. The excitement on the faces of the attendees as they start posting photos online of their newly acquired gadget is proof that this community will only continue to grow.īecause of DARPA's AI hacking competition, Def Con's theme this year was "Rise of the Machines." That informed the Terminator-esque skull design, but the conference badge was more than just a bunch of blinking lights and a homage to a 1980s action film. For Clarke and other badge makers, it was the end of a long building process: time to see how their months of hard work would be received by the hacker masses. When the conference opened last week, every one of those robot skull-shaped pieces of electronics found its way onto a lanyard and around the neck of an attendee.
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