I didn’t. That’s the safest way.
When I absolutely had to, I connected from my hotel room, uncomfortably… they all have to stay somewhere. And hotel WiFi networks are like, a sport.
- 1 – if you have a newer laptop like mine, it didn’t come with an ethernet port. That $30 attachment gives you one
- 2 – surge protect your laptop. Don’t plug $000s into a shoddy socket, and I doubt you’re backed up, I’ve mentioned this
- 3 – I cover my camera
Don’t forget old-fashioned pen & paper.
Every year the press makes a big sensationalized deal about DefCon being “the most hostile network in the world“. Duh guys; it’s the world’s largest security conference, it’d be dissapointing if it wasn’t.
At DefCon they have the ‘Wall of Sheep‘.
It’s a ‘wall of shame’. The network is passively watched, and if your security sucks, your username and password will be captured, displayed and mocked.
There was a time when the full name and password were displayed. Not for years now though. And you know, DefCon felt different this year, I’ll explain in another post.
The easiest way to protect your phone in an uncertain enviroment:
- 1 – turn off your Wifi
- 2 – turn off your data connection
- 3 – put your phone into ‘Airplane mode’ (extreme, but effective)
