Black Hat and Defcon Founder Jeff Moss: What Is the ‘Hacker Mindset?’
“More than 15,000 computer nerds – hackers, government officials, security company officials and who knows who else – spent a few days in Las Vegas recently for an unusual set of conventions.
The subject on everyone’s minds was cyber attacks – computer hacking into systems for fun and profit and international intrigue. The Black Hat convention, which costs up to $5,000 to attend, and the much cheaper Defcon convention, (a bargain at only $140 – cash only) dealt directly with such security issues. The phrase I kept hearing over and over while visiting the conferences for a series of NewsHour stories was that attendees wanted to learn from the bad guys, in order to better defend against online attacks. “
