#HACKER CONFERENCE LAS VEGAS REGISTRATION#
#HACKER CONFERENCE LAS VEGAS SOFTWARE#

And those few like Hursti who could access them had to ensure that the machines were not altered in any way that might affect their performance or void their warrantees. Prior to 2015, Hursti says, the DMCA restricted e-voting machine access to hackers.

That rule established that hacks to e-voting and electronic vote counting and tabulating systems are allowable under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act-so long as those hacks are used for research purposes.

One big difference between now and then is a key rule issued in October 2015, by the U.S. But it took him two weeks instead of the few hours it took hackers last weekend. “I hacked the same e-poll book system in 2007,” Hursti says. Both hacks, Hursti says, undermine critics who have claimed that computerized election system hacks are too elaborate and unrealistic to be used in real world settings. The Danish hacker, Hursti added, also had no prior knowledge about the e-voting system he hacked. They had no prior knowledge, so they started completely from scratch,” says Harri Hursti, Hacking Village co-coordinator and data security expert behind the first hack of any e-voting system in 2005. “These people who hacked the e-poll book system, when they came in the door they didn’t even know such a machine exists. (This may be a conservative estimate, as the hacks discovered at the Village are now being verified and studied before they’ll be compiled and counted as legitimate new hacks.) In total, the inaugural e-voting hackathon turned up at least 18 new vulnerabilities to e-voting and e-poll book systems.

#HACKER CONFERENCE LAS VEGAS REGISTRATION#

Soon after on the same morning, a second group in the room wirelessly hacked into a popular electronic poll book system, responsible for storing and maintaining voter registration information. And before the Hacking Village organizers were even finished with their opening morning introductory remarks, a Danish hacker in the audience had already broken into one of the target machines wirelessly. In it, conference attendees were given access to many of the most popular voting machines and voter registration tracking systems in use around the world today. Some of those hacks could potentially leave no trace, undercutting the assurances of election officials and voting machine companies who claim that virtually unhackable election systems are in place.ĭef C on, an annual computer hacking conference celebrating its 25th year, hosted its first Voting Machine Hacking Village this year. This conclusion emerged from a three-day-long hackathon at the Def Con security conference in Las Vegas last weekend. Winning the title is a lifelong badge of honor, said Aaditya Purani, a participant who works as an engineer at electric car maker Tesla Inc.E-voting machines and voter registration systems used widely in the United States and other countries’ elections can readily be hacked-in some cases with less than two hours’ work. Over the last 10 years, the cybersecurity industry has boomed in value as hacking technology has evolved.

The game has taken on new meaning in recent years as cybersecurity has been elevated as a national security priority by the United States, its allies and rivals. “You will easily find a participant here going to another who may be from a so-called enemy nation to say 'you did an amazing job, an incredible hack.'' 'No other competition has the clout of this one,' said Giovanni Vigna, a participant who teaches at the University of California in Santa Barbara. While their countries may be engaged in cyber espionage against one another, the DEF CON CTF contest allows elite hackers to come together in the spirit of sport. Some worked for their respective governments, some for private firms and others were college students. The hackers, mostly young men and women, included visitors from China, India, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. Participants must not only find bugs in the program but also defend themselves from hacks coming from other competitors.

#HACKER CONFERENCE LAS VEGAS SOFTWARE#

The contest involves breaking into custom-built software designed by the tournament organizers. The winning team, called Maple Mallard Magistrates, included participants from Carnegie Mellon University, its alumni, and the University of British Columbia. In the carpeted ballroom of one of the largest casinos in Las Vegas, the few dozen hackers competing in the challenge sat hunched over laptops from Friday through Sunday during the DEF CON security conference that hosts the event.

Hacker conference las vegas