![]() ![]() Sexual harassment at other computer conferences often appears unintentional, but at hacker conferences it’s often clear that the perp is doing it on purpose, and enjoying the hell out of it. Similar stories about Black Hat, HOPE, CCC, and others are also common. Unfortunately, DEFCON isn’t unusual among hacker conferences. My own stories from DEFCON seem tame compared to what these women went through, but I couldn’t take the constant barrage of sexual insults and walked out halfway through DEFCON 16, swearing not to return if I was going to be harassed like that again. When she turned around, the perpetrator had already disappeared into the crowd. ![]() At a recent DEFCON, while leaning over to get her drink at the bar, someone slid his hand up all the way between her legs and grabbed her crotch. Or the experience of one of my friends, who prefers to remain anonymous. Like the man who tried to get me to show him my tits so he could punch a hole in a card that, when filled, would net him a favor from one of the official security staff. Like the man who grabbed my hips while I was waiting for a drink at the EFF party. Like the man who drunkenly tried to lick my shoulder tattoo. Nothing could have prepared me for the onslaught of bad behavior I experienced. But I didn’t, because of my own bad experiences at DEFCON, and those of people like KC, a journalist and student in San Francisco who wrote about attending DEFCON 19: Every time I read about something cool happening at DEFCON, I wanted to jump on the next flight to Las Vegas. I still have my first DEFCON badge, a cheesy purple and white laminated number with only my first name – at age 17, I wasn’t about to to give my full name to a conference full of hackers! DEFCON todayįast forward 17 years to DEFCON 20. I was so inspired by the fascinating, brilliant, frequently leather-clad people I met at DEFCON 3 that I became a computer programmer. I met a guy with long red hair named Dan Farmer who had written a program called something like EVIL, or SATAN, I wasn’t sure which. That weekend I learned about Kevin Mitnick getting hunted down by the FBI, war-dialing for modems, and the existence of the Internet. ![]()
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