Presented at
DEF CON 32 (2024),
Aug. 9, 2024, 5 p.m.
(45 minutes).
In a world where technology and software are intertwined with our daily lives more than ever, a silent threat grows in the shadows.
End-of-life devices—abandoned by manufacturers - power our homes, hospitals, businesses and critical infrastructure. From the depths of the cyber underground, malicious software from cybercriminal and nation-state actors is seizing these forgotten devices and conscripting them into botnets and other malicious infrastructure.
For example, Black Lotus Labs revealed a chilling trend: 40,000 small office home office (SOHO) routers compromised and enrolled in the sinister 'Faceless' botnet - now powered by devices you own and thought were safe.
And it's not just routers. Critical medical devices, essential security hardware—smart home appliances. No gadget is safe. And, with the Internet of Things set to double in the next decade, billions of vulnerable devices marketed and sold to connect us risk robbing, dividing and defeating us in the years to come: a process one expert has termed “enshittification.”
After years of warnings from the cybersecurity community, alarms are finally sounding in the halls of power. But more is needed: a clarion call to reset, to redefine ownership and security in an age of smart, connected devices before it's too late.
In this panel you’ll be enlisted to join the fight. You’ll hear from experts working at the forefront of a fight to challenge the status quo and seek solutions to safeguard our digital futures.Are you ready to stand up for your right to a secure, connected world? The battle for control, for transparency- for a sustainable and resilient digital future begins now!
Presenters:
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Cory Doctorow
- Author
Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently THE BEZZLE and THE LOST CAUSE. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
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Tarah Wheeler / Pinup
- Senior Fellow in Global Cyber Policy at Council on Foreign Relations
as Tarah Wheeler
Tarah Wheeler is the founder and CEO of Red Queen Dynamics; a Senior Fellow in Global Cyber Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations; and a well-known speaker and writer on topics that include cyberwarfare, security best practices, future trends and more.
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Dennis Giese
Dennis Giese is a researcher with the focus on the security and privacy of IoT devices. While being interested in physical security and lockpicking, he enjoys applied research and reverse engineering malware and all kinds of devices. His most known projects are the documentation and hacking of various vacuum robots. He calls himself a "robot collector" and his current vacuum robot army consists of over 60 different models from various vendors. He talked about his research at the Chaos Communication Congress, REcon BRX, NULLCON, and DEFCON.
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Paul Roberts
- Publisher and Editor in Chief at The Security Ledger
Paul Roberts is the publisher and Editor in Chief of The Security Ledger and the founder of Secure Repairs (securepairs.org) a coalition of cybersecurity and IT pros who support the right to repair.
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Chris Wysopal / Weld Pond
- CTO at Veracode
as Chris Wysopal
Chris Wysopal is the CTO of Veracode, a provider of application security testing technology. Chris began his career as a vulnerability researcher at the renowned hacker think tank, L0pht. In 1998, Chris and 6 of his L0pht colleagues testified before the U.S. Senate on matters of U.S. government cybersecurity.
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