Reflection from 2023 DEF CON

Written by Integrity Institute visiting fellows Rebecca Thein, Theodora Skeadas, and Sarah Amos

In mid-August, Integrity Institute members Rebecca Thein, Theodora Skeadas, Sarah Amos, Hallie Stern, Eric Davis, Charles Smith, and Zara Perumal traveled to Las Vegas, in partnership with Voting Village, to attend DEF CON.

The DEF CON conference is one of the world's largest and most notable hacker conventions. It was started in 1993 by Jeff Moss and is named after the U.S. military's defense readiness condition (DEFCON) system. Every year, thousands of hackers, security researchers, government employees, and journalists gather at DEF CON. 

The Integrity Institute team led multiple panels with Voting Village around protecting our democracy. Our team’s work at Voting Village was highlighted in Politico.

One panel focused on multi-stakeholder solutions for addressing technology-facilitated and networked gender-based violence in politics and elections. Theodora Skeadas, Hallie Stern, and Eric Davis discussed research around how technology platforms can better provide safe spaces for women to politically engage online, the complexities around networked harassment, especially in marginalized communities and those on the fringe, and policies around networked harassment for technology companies. As we look ahead, we see that change is inevitable, and the challenges around election integrity issues will only intensify. Technology platforms engaged in meaningful work combatting online gender-based violence will continue to evolve, and so will malicious actors. We need to provide safe spaces for women to politically engage online.

A second panel focused on the 2024 election threat landscape. Rebecca Thein, Sarah Amos, and Hallie Stern spoke were joined by Sandra Khalil who leads partnerships at All Tech is Human. They outlined the current landscape, discussed current threats surrounding the information ecosystem, shared how they feel 2024 will be impacted by emerging technologies, such as generative AI, and provided a path forward for how we can form alliances to better support democracy. 

Additionally, the Integrity Institute members volunteered at and participated in AI Village, a community of hackers and data scientists working to educate the world on the use and abuse of artificial intelligence in security and privacy. At this year’s DEF CON, AI Village, organized in partnership with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and SeedAI, hosted a hackathon to to test vulnerabilities, biases, and weaknesses of large language models (LLMs) from giant industry players like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Bard, and NVIDIA.

The Integrity Institute members also volunteered at Misinformation Village, a village focused on combating disinformation. As they note, “In the digital era, cyber offense tactics pose significant threats to societal stability and functionality. These tactics can range from data breaches, ransomware attacks, and disinformation campaigns to targeted strikes on critical infrastructure. The interconnectedness of our world means that cyber-attacks can have far-reaching consequences, disrupting essential services like healthcare, transportation, and finance.”

This was a powerful experience for all who participated. Our reflections include: 

Engaging diverse audiences remains a challenge for DEF CON. Women remain noticeably underrepresented in this community, evidencing the continued importance of engaging women in this work. It was a pleasure to meet with participating attendees from Black Tech Street, who attended the conference in partnership with AI Village. At the same time, DEF CON needs to do more to engage diverse audiences. We also observed a critical role for diverse professionals, including policymakers, to play in the hacker community. Setting up thoughtful policies around technology use can create safer and more inclusive systems for everyone. Further, public health is a continued priority in today’s world.

Physical security was also concerning to our members and U.S. officials, as there were multiple security incidents at the conference. When our team arrived at Voting Village for an initial security briefing, a security alarm forced the team to vacate the premise; this was eerily reminiscent of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. Further, that weekend, everyone was asked to evacuate the building due to a report of a suspicious package. Perhaps the formal conference launch, the “Unofficial DEF CON Shoot,” which centers around shooting assault rifles in Las Vegas, may contribute to an atmosphere of physical insecurity at DEF CON. The shooting takes place 24 miles from the Las Vegas Community Healing Garden, or the remembrance site for the 58 people who died on October 1, 2017, in the U.S.’ largest mass shooting. It was strange to have 30,000 attendees yet no formal security check.

Integrity Institute community at DEF CON