Main Talk

What Happens When A Video Game About Hacking Meets The “Hacker Mindset”?

Speaker

Nick Drage (@SonOfSunTzu)

Synopsis

(Postponed from last month, due to tech issues, originally titled “What Can WatchDogs Teach Us About Cyber Security?”)

With the very recent release of WATCH_DOGS 2 it’s timely to look back at the original WATCH_DOGS video game. Set in a fictionalised Chicago, in WATCH_DOGS you play as a “brilliant hacker” who uses his hacking skills to manipulate ctOS, the “Central Operating System” that runs the city. The game was similarly forward looking in its design, combining an open world single player mode with an “always on” feature, meaning the player’s game could be surreptitiously invaded at any time by an online rival.

But for a game that should be saturated with an understanding of hacking, what happens when it meets players with the “hacker mindset”? This talk will take you, Inception like, through the different levels of a player’s understanding of the game, and how they can use that understanding to gain a disproportionate advantage during gameplay.

( Please note, originally this talk was entitled “What Can WatchDogs Teach Us About Cyber Security?” but the presenter realised that there wasn’t that much to learn; also after fighting and losing against Linux display drivers at the October meeting the presenter will be bringing at least two different presenting platforms to the meeting and is currently watching several Overhead Projectors on eBay. )

Short Talk

Fake Your Way Through Minis Live On Stage

Speaker

Yvan Janssens (@friedkiwi)

Synopsis

Ever wanted to know how to log in into an AS/400 system and do rm -rf? Or just the default credentials to carry out $overpaid_assessment? Wait no more, these dirty thirty minutes will educate you about how not to look like a complete moron in front of an InfoWindow Terminal.

This talk will include:

  • Free unmetered cursing
  • Live demo with 110% chance of failing
  • Yours truly dragging a full AS/400 set up through the London Underground network to a pub basement