Sun sets on the last Day of 29c3
Having caught up some sleep and recovered my hearing after New Year in Hamburg I thought I should write down some of my thoughts about 29c3 before they drifted out my memory. This was my third CCC, I had attended 27c3 and 28c3 that look place in Berlin.
Getting to Hamburg from Edinburgh wasn’t as straight forward there aren’t any direct flights at this time of year, but changing at Amsterdam isn’t a big deal. Flight might have been a bit more expensive than Berlin but I did leave it quite late (6 weeks) before booking.
The Congress Center Hamburg is *massive* compared with the previous venue in Berlin. Hall 1 especially was much bigger than the Berlin equivalent and I don’t believe was ever completely filled.
The catering inside CCH was reasonable but less varied than Berlin (especially for a Pestiperian diet) and maybe a little bit more expensive, but still affordable. One night I was caught out by forgetting they would stopping serving at 11pm or so,this was easily solved by some excellent Falafel from a takeaway on the way back to my hostel. There were also several late night food places near CCH so not a big deal.
At the previous congresses I had volunteered as a cloakroom Angel, this year I didn’t. I’m not really completely sure why I didn’t this time but it meant I had more time to spend going to talks etc.
The talks themselves were on the whole very good. I had kinda forgotten about the English translations taking place for German talks so I only attended talks presented in English. Here are a few talks that stood out for me:
- Many Tamagotchis Were Harmed in the Making of this Presentation
A very well delivered and enthusiastic presentation detailing the process of hacking and attempts to reverse engineer Tamagotchis and related hardware.
Youtube video - Hacking Cisco phones
After last years HP printer hacks Ang Cui was back this time with a Cisco VOIP hack. He demonstrated switch on the handset microphone and streaming audio remotely whilst the handset was in the on hook position.
Youtube video - Writing a Thumbdrive from Scratch
I missed the first half of this talk and haven’t caught up from the recording but the later bits were very interesting. If an attacker controls the firmware of what appears to be a “normal” USB storage device then standard forensic techniques such as imaging can be easily detected. Responses may include providing alternative data or self-destruction.
Youtube video
No writeup could be complete without mentioning events around individual harassment and a perception of anti-female atmosphere. Now that the dust has settled it appears likely some of this was deliberate trolling but there are real issues at events such as this and hacker communities in general. I don’t think these are necessarily unique to gender as personal attacks and exclusion based on perceived lack of technical knowledge is more widespread. A good summary of events and where things can go from here is given by the Ada Initiative
So to summarise, an enjoyable congress. I’m sure it will flourish and grow in it’s new home. I’m not sure if I’ll be attending 30c3, maybe need to take a year off, but a lot can change in 355 days!