China Has Some Of The Best Hackers In The World. Its Government Wants To Keep Them There.
L33tdawg: See you guys at HITBSecConf2018 - Beijing on November 1st and 2nd :)
At first glance, you couldn’t see much of a difference between DEF CON, the notoriously rowdy American hacker conference, and its newly formed franchise in Beijing, where in May China hosted its first hacker conference.
Famous American speakers still gave technical talks while bathed in neon green light. Upstairs, instructors in small rooms offered hands-on classes on soldering computer chips, social engineering (the art of convincing someone to do what you want, like clicking a phishing email), and picking locks. Just outside, two dudes in jeans and T-shirts plugged a laptop into a sedan and invited you to try your hand at hacking its console.
What you wouldn’t notice was the Chinese government’s presence lurking just beneath the surface. While the lock-picking village let you try your hand at various padlocks, government officials had objected to instructors bringing in handcuffs; they didn’t want imagery of people breaking free from custody. The two men running the car-hacking village were in China before they learned they would, indeed, be provided a rental car to mess with. Though they could tell it was a Chevy Cruze, and assume its age, they couldn’t tell for sure, because all identifying marks had been covered with heavy black tape to obscure the model.
