Just The Beginning 
By: Infosec Daemon



Jeff walked down the hall, he tried to remember to smile and nod to people.  Some he knew, some knew him.  He was optimistic about what he saw so far.  Everything was running smooth but he knew that anything going wrong now could be catastrophic.  People were streaming through the doors, it had begun.  Technically it had begun yesterday but today would test the limits.  This was going to be the biggest Def Con ever and Jeff was happy to see that something that he had started for him and some friends, twenty-nine years ago, had grown so large.  The preparations that he and his team had made for the past five years were about to pay off.  Jeff made his way to the ballroom, ready to speak to 40,000 guests.  It wasn't a "keynote" speech.   That was too presumptuous, assuming that what he had to say would be the biggest highlight of the conference.  Some conferences even forced all attendees to view the keynote, by broadcasting it in every room.  Jeff refused to do that.  That's why he had waited until day two of Def Con, and not until 11AM, in two rooms.  With 25,000 physical attendees he had to be realistic... there would be enough people wanting to hear what he had to say.  But he was sharing the time slot with other talks and Nikita and the team always put him up with popular ones.

Before he stepped through the doors, Jeff lowered his VR goggles and looked down at his virtual self. Dark Tangent didn't really transform himself much.  Except for the leather pants.  He couldn't pull these off in real life anymore but in VR... why not.  This was his conference and he was about to make history.  As he walked towards the steps, he looked out at the crowd.  There was a mix of people here physically and virtually, though everyone had on a headset so it didn't matter.  Headsets were invisible to those wearing them, once in the VR, and those in the room that were not, saw a bunch of people wearing headsets... a strange and isolating feeling.  It would be similar to a few years ago, not wearing 3D glasses in a 3D movie.  You were left disoriented and unable to really appreciate the movie.  3D had suffered the same fate as beta-max, not widely adopted and replaced by a superior technology.  

Those that were physically in the overflow room, with their headsets on, had seats in this virtual room and as far as everyone could tell, they were all in the same room together. Of course, people were plugged in from everywhere.  Though you still had to provide a place to sit for those that continued to gather in the desert.  Def Con was being simultaneously hosted at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and virtually around the world.  Attendance was no longer limited to those that could travel to Vegas.  Financial and legal restrictions were no longer an obstacle to overcome.  The entire conference wouldn't be mixed virtual, but most of the talks would.  Some speakers did require physical presence only, based on the sensitive material they were discussing.  But Jeff was satisfied that finally his conference had become the all inclusive event he wanted.  He wondered what it would evolve into five years from now.

In the virtual conference, there were no Goons.  Behavior was monitored and controlled from the NOC.  The rules were still simple and anyone attempting to perform virtual violence or intimidation on anyone else was immediately ejected.  The NOC could insert themselves in the virtual conference wherever they chose, if someone needed guidance or help.  But for the most part, they sat back and observed from afar, willing to allow the conference attendees enjoy the conference as they chose.  There were still areas where conference attendees could congregate, outside the view of the NOC.  But those areas were well marked so Def Con had no responsibility for anyone who went in there or the actions they took.  In the physical world, the Goons continued to "assist" people as they moved between conference rooms. Headsets had to be raised while walking, but could be worn in all of the villages and chill out rooms.

Jeff climbed the steps up to the stage and looked out at the crowd.  As the music died down, the crowd began a thunderous applause as they climbed to their feet.  

"Thank you everyone!" Jeff said while shushing the crowd with his hands.  Encouraging everyone to sit, though some chose to hover in the back.  In virtual reality, gravity was optional.  Jeff laughed as he looked around at the size of the crowd.  

"This is fantastic.  Thank you all for coming and welcome to Def Con 29!" Booming applause.  "The first ever hacker conference held simultaneously virtually and physically." More applause.  

As the Dark Tangent continued with his opening keynote, Dax moved from the main ballroom to the hall, lifting her VR headset.  To the casual observer, it looked like a pair of sunglasses and noise canceling ear buds, with a small wire down to a VR pack in her backpack.  The VR pack was about the size of a Raspberry Pi, but the hardware was about eight times as fast as the original Pi.  Capable of pushing the necessary graphics while constantly measuring position and gestures from the tiny sensor wires attached temporarily to Dax's limbs.  Facial expressions were monitored from cameras in the frame of the VR glasses.  They were used to mimic the facial expressions of the wearer, or could be overridden if preferred.  So as to keep the poker face going.  Regardless of the setting, Dax always had a poker face on.

This was Dax's third consecutive Def Con.  When she had attended her first, Def Con 26, she felt like she had finally found people that understood her and accepted her for who he was.  She had come to the hacker summer camp an introverted loner.  She left with a small group of like minded friends who she kept in touch with over the year.  Since then they reunited every year in Vegas, at Def Con.  This year, Dax's group of friends were on a mission.  With the introduction of the VR village, there were new "Virtual Reality" tasks as part of the scavenger hunt.  This year, incorporated the virtual world and the new realms that this opened.  With challenges consisting of finding certain avatars and grabbing selfies in certain VR restricted locations.  Dax and her friends were intent on completing as many of the VR restricted challenges as they could.  Normally, people who lived in Las Vegas had the advantage in the scavenger hunt, with a vehicle and knowledge of where items or celebrities could be acquired.  But this year, with the addition of the VR aspect, the game was more of a level playing field.  

Dax walked towards the escalator.  She passed two Jayson Streets giving what could only be described as the most awkward hug ever seen... Both the real Jayson and a "non-player character" Jayson hugging an attendee at the same time... Certainly bizarre but not out of character for the author, speaker and hacker.  Non-player characters or "NPC's" were popular from role-playing games, meant to interact with players.  And of course they had carried over to the virtual world.  Though they cost a considerable amount of money, for the programming and licensing, it was typical of large corporations to sponsor such character creations, usually to occupy their vendor booths.  Jayson went everywhere with his, programmed to mimic and compliment his real-life doppelganger.  

Dax continued on the escalator down, leaving the Def Con conference behind, confident that she had the correct coordinates for the "prop" that had been placed, and that it would fire as expected, she calmly walked towards the coffee shop at the bottom and took a seat at a table outside the cafe.  She lowered her VR glasses and rejoined the room DT was speaking in.  At that time, in the welcome brief, DT had just finished thanking his core Def Con crew for all the hard work setting up the conference.  Dax settled virtually in the back of the virtual room, watching as DT paced the center of the stage.  Dax, used her eyes to start a recording of the virtual session.  She entered the coordinates she had just measured and pressed a button on her physically arm-mounted keyboard, hidden under her coat.  Instantly, a virtual NPC appeared at the left-side of the stage.  A full sized Darth Vader.  The crowd, thinking this was part of the theatrics, immediately applauded.  Dark Tangent, knowing this is not part of his planned talk, is actually unphased.  In all the years, he has seen many pranks at Def Con.  Darth Vader illuminates his light saber.  DT reflexively takes a nervous step backwards.  

In the NOC, alarms begin to fire as Darth Vader appears.  The network has detected an unmanned NPC.  Not an unknown threat, but with the newness of this hybrid virtual and physical conference, it's the first time this threat has ever been detected on a production network.  While the NOC works to isolate the node without disrupting the thousands of virtual connections, the virtual Darth take a menacing step towards DT.  "Is anyone seeing this in the room?  We have Darth Vader on the stage with DT!" Jessie yells into the radio, alerting all the Goons in the room to the threat.  While the alarms list this as a virtual entity only and the cameras showing the physical room don't show anyone on stage with Jeff, Jessie is not taking any chances.

"Negative, we have no bogeys on the stage at this time" came the response from Seth, the Goon in charge of DT's security detail.

OK, good.  Jessie thinks.  Now to find that node.  Jessie immediately starts a scan for any unmanned computers in the main room.  The scan comes back clean.  There are no unaccounted computers without a physical human presence with them.  Next Jessie starts a scan for any larger than normal heat signatures, in case someone has doubled up on their VR nodes... Nothing.

As Jessie frantically searches for the source, the Darth Vader hologram speaks.  "Dark Tangent, it is time you realize the true power of the Dark-side.  Join team 'Just Tom' and we will rule the galaxy together" the hologram voice speaks to all attendees.

"Well that's an interesting proposition, but who is team 'Just Tom'?" Dark Tangent calmly replies.    
"They are the ones who will be victorious and you will be foolish not join them." Darth Vader says menacingly.
"I will always be a rebel" DT replies.

Money! Dax got the quote she needed.  200 points if you could get Dark Tangent to say your teams name on-stage.  She pressed another series of key sequences on her arm-mounted keyboard.

"Very well Dark Tangent, my purpose is served and my master beckons me home."  With a flourish of the light saber, the Darth Vader hologram spins his light saber and then stabs himself in the stomach.  This is followed immediately by a flash of light and then the hologram disappears.  It certainly was not everyday you got to see Darth Vader commit seppuku.  Which is what the hologram was programed to do with the final key presses Dax had performed.  

Dax pulled up her VR glasses, instantly snapped back to the reality outside the cafe.  Unregistered Human was waiting for her.  "Did you get it?" he asked.
"Yes!" Dax replied.  "Big Country did a perfect job."
"I know, I saw.  Even if you didn't get it recorded, I am sure there were a few thousand sessions recording.  Luckily BC had that VR standalone box already handy."
"Is he retrieving it?" Dax asked.
"I think he is trying to.  I am sure there are Goons swarming the stage right now, trying to find the projector."

VR standalones could join into a virtual room but did have a requirement to be in the physical room.  What was unknown to many, just based on the immaturity of the technology, was that when multiple physical rooms were merged, as the overflow room was, the signal could be redirected from an alternate location and repositioned in the virtual room.  Security, provided by the Goons of Def Con, in the main room, where Jeff Moss was located, was particularly heavy.  In the overflow room, not so much.  It was a simple hack to exploit this flaw to appear on the stage, once the virtual rooms were joined.

As Dax and UnHuman spoke, people walked through the hallway, into and out of the cafe.  Into the shops, down to the casino floor, and some upstairs to the conference.  They were all oblivious to what was happening upstairs in the room where Jeff Moss was giving his welcome speech.  Either there as normal Vegas tourists, ready to unload themselves of their savings with the hope of making it rich, or conference attendees who for various reasons didn't feel the need to be in a talk at 11AM on a Friday morning.  Whatever the reason, the video would be uploaded to YouTubeVR and the link tweeted to the Def Con Scavenger hunt crew who would certainly re-tweet it, along with hundreds of other attendees and viewers.  

As Dax and UnHuman spoke, at a table near theirs, Dimitry sat calmly and watched the same tourist and conference attendees walk by.  Like Dax, this was not his first Def Con, in fact this was his 8th.  And like Dax, Dimitry was there with a team and working on a scavenger hunt of sorts... though this one was not for public participation.  This was more of a private scavenger hunt.  Dimitry's team attended Def Con every year, though the people who Dimitry brought with him usually changed ever year.  It was not good for the same people to be seen too often.  Familiar faces were not an attribute that you wanted in Dimitry's line of work.  And in his line of work, the really good ones weren't allowed to leave the compound.  

But still Dimitry needed to be here to recruit.  His team would mingle with the other attendees and the desired ones would be recruited, one way or another.  The virtual reality twist added this year was something that Dimitry didn't much care for.  Already he had confirmation that two of the people he was looking for would not be attending physically.  Holed up in their basements or apartments... wherever they decided to operate from, they were attending virtually.  Dimitry could locate them and take them by force but that wasn't how he liked to operate.  His team had made a very good living out of recruiting from Def Con and the low cost of operating out of here would be increased if he had to build a retrieval team to operate in another city.

Dimitry was a handler for a group that security researchers had named "Crimson Cobra".  Researchers suspected this group to be a Chinese government offshoot, which is exactly what the group wanted to be portrayed as.  In fact they were more of an independent, for hire group.  Doing work mostly for a government in Eastern Europe, they also contracted regularly with organized crime groups.  By being suspected of Chinese government affiliations, it provided them a certain level of leeway.  Whenever one of their attacks was uncovered, usually long after they had abandoned it, with the suspicion falling on China, the usual suspects from that country were looked at and blamed.  This allowed Dimitry and his group to continue to operate in the shadows, ultimately as an unknown player.

Dimitry checked his watch.  Ten minutes until twelve.  He finished his espresso and got up from the table.  Glancing over at Dax and UnHuman he smiled to himself.  He figured they were waiting on their friend "Country Boy", but he wouldn't be coming... One way or another he would be working for Dimitry now.  His 'recruiters' should have that one headed for the car by now.  Dimitry had been watching Big Country for a while and his latest escapade, hacking the Def Con network at any level, confirmed what Dimitry already knew... this one would be a valuable resource.

"I've got it" Jessie said to the Goons searching for the unauthorized network node.  "It's in the overflow room, second row, under the third chair."  As the Goons rush into the room, quietly swarming on the designated chair, three men quietly exit the other side of the room.  Two of the men actually having to help one between them.  All three are wearing Guy Fawkes masks.  

"Some people can't handle their liquor!" another attendee laughs, pointing at the limp form between the two men.  "Exactly!" one of the Guy Fawkes masks replies with perfect English.