On the Scene at Hacker Summer Camp: DEF CON, Community, and Volunteerism

Recorded during Black Hat 2024 in Las Vegas, this PlexTrac Friends Friday conversation brings our founder Abhijith B R together with Dan DeCloss, founder and CTO of PlexTrac, for a chat from the scene at Hacker Summer Camp.

“Hacker Summer Camp” is the name the community gives to the run of back-to-back security events that take over Las Vegas every August, namely Black Hat, DEF CON, and BSides Las Vegas. It is the busiest, most energetic week of the year for the industry, and the backdrop for this conversation.

Across the chat, Abhijith and Dan get into a wide range of topics:

• the Adversary Village community initiative, what it is, why Abhijith started it, and what it has grown into;
• DEF CON as a hacker convention, and what sets it apart from the rest of the calendar;
• how Abhijith first got into hacker culture, and the path that led him there;
• the point of volunteering at conferences, and why so much of what makes these events work is volunteer-driven;
• why DEF CON is such a great place for hackers and technology enthusiasts from around the world to gather, learn, and connect.

It is a candid look at the people and the community behind the conferences, and a reminder that giving back matters as much as the offensive work itself.

Watch

Watch the full conversation on YouTube.

Follow

• Abhijith B R: linkedin.com/in/abhijith-b-r
• Dan DeCloss: linkedin.com/in/dandecloss