Short report on HOPE #9 for Unigroup

I helped staff the MARCH exhibit at HOPE Number Nine:
Hackers on Planet Earth hosted by 2600 at the Hotel Pennsylvania.

Citing the HOPE FAQ
Q: What is a hacker?
A: A hacker is someone who is curious and creative, and seeks to understand how things work, especially complicated systems. Many hackers use technology to perform their investigations, and enjoy sharing information about their findings with other people. Often, hackers are willing to exceed boundaries of expected behaviors, to better understand systems they are interested in.

Q: So, are you saying this conference will be full of criminals and other miscreants?
A: No, the conference will be full of creative and caring people, sharing what they know. You are encouraged to attend, and to contribute your energies and ideas to help make it even better.

Show Discounts

30% off No Starch Press books
code 30HOPE9
expires 30-Sept-2012

and remember the usual Unigroup discounts:

I was there representing the Vintage Computer Museum of NJ on the 2nd floor
amid all the hacker spaces, lock picking & vendors (EFF, Open Source, locksmiths).
I'm frustrated with the lack of support for Arduino alternatives.

Our exhibit was Single Board Computers of the 70s & 80s, featuring an Apple 1 replica

There were many great presentations about technology & society such as: Travis Goodspeed
who led an extremely technical presentation about crypto weaknesses and wireless network sniffing using cheap tools.
I got to chat with him and learned a lot about wireless INsecurity: vulnerabilities in current security & authentication particularly
  1. how one mfgr's hardware RNG is really a poorly seeded ECC (error correcting code)
  2. The "smart meter" embedded version of Certicom's ECMQV IS BROKEN, can get the private key even with a bad handshake
  3. Wardriving for Zigbee reveals a lot, such as parking meters
The overall theme was the "dept of HOPEland security": security theatre & harassment vs. privacy
Club Matte was the primary beverage, the boxes were EVERYWHERE made into an impromptu-scanner around the escalator