Our weekend at Layer One didn’t exactly go as planned.
He had originally intended to attend just the Layer One after party at the 23B shop in Fullerton on Sunday night, but some of our good friends in the InfoSec community talked us into coming up early.
The original plan was that we would have a few drinks with friends in San Diego Friday night, and then head to Tecate MX on Saturday. But while with our friends, another friend that was attending Layer One messaged and asked when we would be arriving. We said Sunday for the after party. 20 minutes later we were informed that we had a room for both nights of Layer One as well as an invite to hangout in the conference with friends. Well with an offer like that it was too good to pass up. We hurried home, had a quick dinner, packed in record time and were on the way to Los Angeles and the Layer One security conference.
Upon arrival we found the bar packed with people that we knew all having a great time and catching up on things. The next few hours were spent seeing old friends and catching up with them over beers. The out came the remote controlled bars and a drone or 2.
Having never used a remote control vehicle with VR goggles we simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity. It seems that the goggles by Fat Shark are the preferred ones for almost all RC enthusiasts as I keep seeing them in videos on the internet as well as at gatherings for the emerging sport. This event was no exception. To be honest I was a little nervous about motion sickness as that is something I seem to have developed in the last few years but to my surprise I was just fine. Also of a concern was the ability to control the car that we were driving, but surprisingly I seemed to take to it like a fish to water. There was no awkward getting used to the controls like there is in a video game, all the controls were spot on as was the tolerances that were set for the unit. Here’s Sharon taking her turn piloting the little RC car that was available to play with. She did really well also and surprisingly neither of us had the desire to really turn our head as if we were in the car itself. Now my only struggle is to not run out and get one of these, as they are truly incredibly fun to play with.
The rest of the night was spent just hanging out, talking and catching up on things with friends that we only get to see a few times a year. Finally around 0300 we called it a night and got some sleep. The next morning we decided to treat our selves to one of our favorite treats when visiting L.A., Mexican food! Usually we have a rule that we only go to a place once because there are so many different places to try, but there is a restaurant close to LAX that we just love to go to. Zacatecas Restaurant is one place that keeps us coming back for more. Despite not having a salsa bar they really put out some great Mexican food.
Once we felt human again we headed back to the Layer One conference to check out the various villages and see what talks were being held. One stop I always like to make is the hardware hacking village. They have an entire room set up with soldering stations and other various tools and items that you would need to assemble circuit board mounted components and almost anything else you can imagine. What has always impressed me to no end is that they have small microscopes on many of the tables that people are just free to sit at and use to assemble small and delicate electronics. This is a place that our good friend Chad Cunningham could just lose himself in for days.
Next door to the hardware hacking village at Layer One was the Lock Picking Village.
The Hacker Stickers table out front is a great stop for lock picks and other handy tools that you need if you’re going to learn how to open a lock. They have standard pick sets, tubular lock pick sets, as well as many other items that you need. But unfortunately this time they didn’t have any warded lock picks. Oh well next time.
Inside the Lock Picking Village there is the Tamper Evident table that has many challenges for opening items that are supposed to be tamper evident. This is always a favorite at any convention we go to. It’s challenging but there are many different levels of difficulty for people to try. Then there’s the Lock Picking table with almost any kind of lock you could imagine and several that you would almost never dream up. I have seen some truly genius yet incredibly simple designs in here. It’s truly impressive.
There are also many tables in the room just like in the Hardware Hacking Village, except these have a vast buffet of locks for you to sit and learn how to open. It’s the perfect place to break in that new set of lock picks that you just bought right outside the door. Not to mention that if you happen to break a pick [it happens] a replacement is only about 30 feet away. The people at Layer One are really helpful, friendly, and eager to show people how to learn new skills whether it be lock picking, or soldering, or any other of a wide variety of disciplines that you might find at an information security conference like Layer One.
Then there’s the ever-present Capture The Flag hacking competition. This is where hackers come to engage in challenges on a controlled network. I’m not sure what the specific challenge was at Layer One this year but you can clearly see that they are hard at work and there seems to be one team that has gained a commanding lead in the competition. Good job DC562!
Then the main cornerstone of the Layer One info. Sec. conference or any conference that is, is the talks or tracks as they are called. There are several talks at every conference and Layer One was no exception. They usually run from 20-30 minutes to an hour, and are on practically on every topic that you can imagine. I attended a talk on Red Team organization, and operations. It was fairly interesting. The pictures are from a talk on ATM hacking/wardriving that I stepped in to for a few minutes. Sadly I happened in during the tail end of the talk, I would have liked to have heard it, as it sounded very interesting.
There was also a pretty good amount of time spent at the pool just relaxing and hanging out with friends old and new. It’s always really good to see friends from here in the So. Cal. area as well as those from the Northeast and further away. We had a couple of people come all the way from Singapore to attend the Layer One Information Security Conference this year.
Then there is the obligatory after party at the 23b hacker-space in Fullerton. This is a shop that anyone in the hacking community can stop by and tinker with their projects and collaborate with others. This year they had several cool things that we got to see while we were there. One of which was the homebuilt robot that came to live at the shop. While I’m not sure of the origins of the little guy he was in a state of repair and semi-functionality. Listening to him during his boot up process immediately reminded everyone there of the old movie Short Circuit (1986), and it’s star Johnny 5.
Then there’s the obligatory refrigerator that no garage/workspace is complete without. Including the home brewed beers that were brewed and specifically kegged for the occasion this Memorial Day weekend.
The amount of old school tech here was really cool. How often do you see a telephone like this? To answer the next question that you’re going to have, “Yes, I’m old enough to have actually use one of these.”
Sharon also got to spend some time with a few of the guys here looking at the magnetic motor here with one of the guys from the 23B Hackerspace Shop.
Then getting spend some time with the glass blowing setup in the back part of the shop. I do have to say that I was pretty impressed with the glass blowing that was going on here. The resident glass blower seems to be really experienced at this craft.
Then next door there is the Plasmatrioum that specializes in hand made and lighted sculptures and lamps. Many of the shapes would simply not be possible without the technology of the laser cutting rigs that are available today.
Then there are the games that hackers play….and one of the favorites tonight was the gigantic Jenga set that was an endless source of entertainment. Probably because it was played with a hammer. You can always tell who the true professionals are because they play Jenga with a flaming hammer!
There was an actual tournament that was organized and the winner got free entry to the Layer One conference in 2017. All in all the weekend was great and there was lots of great people just hanging out and having a good time.
Then there are demonstrations of ingenuity with every day items and alcohol that are always entertaining as can be.
As always no party is complete without the trip to the taco shack at 1 in the morning.
