Cybersecurity is increasingly important — to people, businesses, and even governments. Accordingly, there is a growing fascination with hackers, those skilled programmers who seem to bend computer systems to their will. These hackers spent most of their time behind screens, but every year thousands of them head to Las Vegas for the nation's premier conventions on hacking and information security. Both founded by Jeff Moss, a.k.a. The Dark Tangent, Black Hat focuses on security professionals while Def Con is made for hackers. The conventions have become a kind of neutral ground where hackers, security professionals, and federal agents can meet and mix with impunity, but the 2013 conferences are happening just two months after detailed revelations of the National Security Agency's surveillance programs were leaked. Hackers and feds will clash, new attacks will be revealed, and we'll meet the denizens of the cybersecurity world. Watch here for our coverage from the ground.
Aug 14, 2013
Cracking suicide: hackers try to engineer a cure for depression
High-profile suicides have the hacker community talking about how to protect itself
Aug 8, 2013
After Snowden leaks, feds lose their hacker cred at Def Con
Can spooks and hackers bury the hatchet post-PRISM?
Aug 4, 2013
Dating coach shows how to get classified military intel using social engineering
Hacking people is easy
Aug 2, 2013
What is Facebook doing at a hacker convention in Vegas?
The social network pays the underground a visit
Aug 1, 2013
Edward Snowden is now a gimmick to sell security software
The private sector is biting its nails over the fear of insider cyber threats. But Snowden isn't whom they should be worried about
Jul 31, 2013
The top 10 new reasons to be afraid of hackers
The scariest new tricks at this year's twin computer crime conferences, Black Hat and Def Con