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Be Safe and be Kind 

For many of us who have been attending DEFCON for decades, the experience is more than just a conference. It’s been a front-row seat to the evolution of cybersecurity and hacker culture itself. I could play the role of the old guy yelling “get off my lawn”—and to be honest, sometimes I am—but it’s not all bad. In fact, a lot of it has been incredibly good.

Let’s start with the positives. Over the years, cybersecurity has transformed from a fringe interest into a legitimate, respected, and in many cases, lucrative career. Many of us have been fortunate enough to get paid for something we would have happily done for free. What was once a hobby or obsession—pulling things apart, seeing how they worked, and occasionally breaking them—became the foundation for a professional industry. That’s no small shift.

But for those who remember the early days, the heart of it wasn’t about career ladders or sponsorships. It was about the subculture that pulled us together under the neon glow of Las Vegas. Black t-shirts. Spiked mohawks. A healthy distrust of authority. A belief that information should be free, and that curiosity—sometimes reckless, sometimes brilliant—was worth celebrating.

In those days, spotting a fed was a game. Literally. “Spot the Fed” was one of DEFCON’s most infamous contests, and it existed because federal agents were considered outsiders, infiltrators, or at the very least, people who didn’t quite belong in hacker spaces. The tension was part of the fun. It was a cat-and-mouse game that defined the line between hacker culture and the government.

Today, the dynamic has changed. Federal agencies now have an official and very visible presence at DEFCON. Recruitment booths, sponsored talks, and entire tracks dedicated to government perspectives are part of the modern conference. The fed you once tried to spot in a crowd is now right there on the main stage, sharing insights and seeking talent.

Some of this is inevitable, and even beneficial in some ways. Governments need skilled hackers to help defend critical systems, and for many attendees, these sessions provide valuable knowledge. But the side effect is that the rebellious, underground feel that once defined DEFCON has shifted. The hacker culture that thrived on curiosity, experimentation, and skepticism of authority now has to coexist with the very institutions it once quietly resisted.

That doesn’t mean it’s gone. If you know where to look, it’s still there: the hallway conversations, the unsanctioned meetups, the weird projects that never make it onto the main stage. The spirit of hacker culture is still alive, but it has to fight harder for space in a conference now defined by its visibility to the government and the influence of corporations .

One way to preserve that spirit is to create smaller groups of like-minded people locally. Meet regularly, share projects, organize mini-conventions, and nurture the hacker ethos on a scale where curiosity, experimentation, and irreverence can thrive. These local efforts help keep the culture alive in ways that a massive conference can no longer fully support.

When you attend DEFCON today, understand what it has become. It’s still an important place to share ideas, learn, and connect—but remember what it once was. Enjoy the villages, the talks, the camaraderie, but it’s okay to feel a little nostalgic for the desert as it was. Missing what it was doesn’t make you bitter; it means you care about the culture that drew you there in the first place. And that care ensures hacker culture continues, long after the neon lights dim.

DEF CON Attendance Over the Years

We all know AI is not with out it's biases but I wanted to see what it had to say about Social Media today.  Below are the results of the following ChatGPT prompt. To be clear the results where directly copy and pasted  from ChatGPT itself. Also the prompt was submitted in a new prompt window. 

Prompt: Rank social media sites by misinformation, racism, negativity, then give them a skeezy score 1 out of 10 1 being least skeezy 10 being the most skeezy. Also write a small paragraph of why they got the score they did. Alsod add some additional context around each score. 

Here is a ranked list of major social media platforms, evaluated on misinformation, racism, and negativity, along with a Skeezy Score (1 = least skeezy, 10 = most skeezy). Each score includes a short paragraph of context explaining why the site ranked as it did and additional notes for nuance.

🧨 1. 4chan / 8kun

• Misinformation: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Racism: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Negativity: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Skeezy Score: 10/10

Why: These imageboards are almost entirely unmoderated and known for incubating conspiracy theories, extremist ideologies, and deeply offensive content. While not designed as traditional social platforms, their influence on broader online culture (QAnon, Gamergate, etc.) is significant and often toxic.

Additional context: These platforms operate outside of mainstream moderation norms, with anonymity allowing hate speech and disinformation to flourish unchecked. 8kun (formerly 8chan) in particular has been linked to multiple mass shooter manifestos.

🧨 2. Telegram (Public Groups / Channels)

• Misinformation: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Racism: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Negativity: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Skeezy Score: 9/10

Why: Telegram allows encrypted messaging, which is great for privacy — but in public channels, it's become a haven for far-right groups, COVID-19 misinformation, and neo-Nazi recruitment. The lack of moderation or reporting tools in these public spaces makes it fertile ground for unchecked extremism.

Additional context: Telegram itself isn’t inherently malicious — private chats are often innocuous — but its hands-off stance with public channels gives rise to unchecked disinformation and hate communities.

🧨 3. Truth Social

• Misinformation: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Racism: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Negativity: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Skeezy Score: 9/10

Why: Created as a reactionary platform, Truth Social caters heavily to a politically conservative user base and has become a misinformation echo chamber, especially around elections, vaccines, and political conspiracies. Moderation is inconsistent and ideologically skewed.

Additional context: Its very branding around "truth" ironically draws users looking to bypass fact-checks or moderation policies from mainstream sites, which creates a feedback loop of unchallenged disinformation.

🧨 4. X (formerly Twitter)

• Misinformation: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Racism: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Negativity: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Skeezy Score: 8.5/10

Why: Since Elon Musk's acquisition, moderation policies have been rolled back, bans have been lifted on previously suspended hate accounts, and trust & safety staff have been cut. The platform now hosts more unchecked hate speech and misleading content than ever before.

Additional context: X still has massive global influence, but its tilt toward “free speech absolutism” has emboldened bad actors. The loss of context labels and verified source trust has made misinformation harder to identify.

🧨 5. Facebook

• Misinformation: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Racism: 🔥🔥🔥

• Negativity: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Skeezy Score: 7.5/10

Why: Facebook’s older user base makes it a prime target for scams and misinformation, especially political and medical. While Facebook invests in moderation, algorithms still amplify divisive content. Private groups often incubate harmful rhetoric outside public view.

Additional context: It’s a double-edged sword — Facebook does have fact-checking and reporting mechanisms, but the scale and demographic tilt often undermine those efforts.

🧨 6. Reddit

• Misinformation: 🔥🔥🔥

• Racism: 🔥🔥🔥

• Negativity: 🔥🔥🔥

• Skeezy Score: 6/10

Why: Reddit is as good or bad as the subreddit you're in. Some communities are extremely positive, educational, and self-moderated. Others are toxic, conspiracy-driven, or subtly bigoted. Site-wide moderation improved after 2020 but gaps remain.

Additional context: The karma system can incentivize outrage and sarcasm, and the site has a history of being slow to remove deeply harmful communities (e.g., r/The_Donald, r/Incels).

🧨 7. YouTube (Comments + Algorithm)

• Misinformation: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Racism: 🔥🔥🔥

• Negativity: 🔥🔥🔥

• Skeezy Score: 5.5/10

Why: YouTube has improved moderation, but its recommendation algorithm has a known bias toward extremism and rabbit-hole content (especially with political, health, and financial topics). The comments section is often a wasteland of trolling or hate.

Additional context: The size and reach of YouTube give it disproportionate power, and even fringe creators can amass millions of views before content is flagged or removed.

🧨 8. Instagram

• Misinformation: 🔥🔥

• Racism: 🔥🔥

• Negativity: 🔥🔥🔥

• Skeezy Score: 4/10

Why: While Instagram isn't a major hub of political misinformation, it’s a source of filtered reality that can lead to toxic comparisons, fake influencer lifestyles, and subtle reinforcement of beauty standards and classism. Racism tends to be more covert or in comments.

Additional context: Instagram Reels and Stories do occasionally promote misleading health or wellness content, but overall it’s less toxic than text-heavy platforms.

🧨 9. TikTok

• Misinformation: 🔥🔥🔥

• Racism: 🔥🔥

• Negativity: 🔥🔥🔥

• Skeezy Score: 3.5/10

Why: TikTok’s youthful user base and engaging format can spread misinformation quickly — especially pseudoscience or political content — but the platform actively removes harmful content. Racism and negativity tend to appear in comment sections more than videos.

Additional context: The platform’s opaque algorithm has raised concerns about echo chambers and state influence, but its vibe is generally more entertainment-driven than combative.

🧨 10. LinkedIn

• Misinformation: 🔥

• Racism: 🔥

• Negativity: 🔥🔥

• Skeezy Score: 2/10

Why: LinkedIn is mostly professional, so overt toxicity is rare. The skeeziest content here tends to be humblebrags, cringe thought leadership, or fake hustle culture — not hate speech or disinformation. It’s the least toxic of the major platforms.

Additional context: That said, it’s not free from issues — DEI-related posts sometimes bring out covert racism, and some job scams or pyramid scheme tactics do pop up.

🧨 11. Mastodon / Fediverse

• Misinformation: 🔥

• Racism: 🔥

• Negativity: 🔥

• Skeezy Score: 1.5/10

Why: Decentralized and often community-moderated, Mastodon avoids much of the toxicity of mainstream platforms. It attracts more tech-literate, privacy-conscious users who tend to self-police well. It’s still niche but healthier overall.

Additional context: It lacks mass adoption, which may protect it from the volume of trolls and misinformation that plague other networks. However, moderation quality can vary by instance.