Urban Exploration

Architecture and Background

DEF CON 16 - Phreakmonkey & mutantMandias :Urban Exploration - A Hacker's View Urban Exploration is the practice of discovering and exploring (and often photographing) the more "off-beat" areas of human civilization. Popular targets of Urban Exploration include abandoned hospitals or institutions, empty factories, and other disused structures, but it can also include "active" sites such as service corridors, utility levels, rooftops, storm drains, steam tunnels, you name it. For years, the Urban Exploration community and Hacker community have existed in parallel despite their many commonalities. This talk will introduce UrbEx to the DefCon community and explore the similarity of the mindsets between those who explore the far reaches of cyberspace and those who explore the forgotten areas of the real world. Bring an open mind, a sense of adventure, and any experiences you've had when you've wandered into a forgotten or "off limits" area just to see what's there. You might already be an Urban Explorer and not have realized it!

Vulnerability Analysis

K.C. (Phreakmonkey) is a computer security engineer by trade and has attended DefCon for ten consecutive years. When he is not staring at computer screens he likes to apply his abstract thinking abilities to exploring the world around him and photographing what he discovers. K.C. has been exploring since he was a young child, when his mother had a penchant for self-guided tours of half-built houses. Ever since, he has been drawn to seeing what lies beyond unmarked doors or off-limits hallways.

Exploitation and Demonstrations

In recent years K.C. has combined photography with his love of the relics of our disposable infrastructure. Through sharing these photographs and experiences, he found that many people around him share his fascination with the forgotten and behind-the-scenes view of the world. Mandias (mutantMandias) is an IT guy, Photographer, and Agitator who tries not to be blind to the world around him, and is constantly amazed by what people fail to see. He thinks that the back of a No Trespassing sign is beautiful, and always feels better when he is on the "other" side of barriers designed to keep people out. His exploration fetish was partially fed as a youngster by seeing a pro Neutron Bomb propaganda film which depicted a glorious victory over an enemy by simply melting away all of the people, leaving the buildings and industry intact.

Remediation and Defensive Strategies

He thought it was a really cool idea, and likes to take pictures that embody that kind of feeling, but thinks that actually melting away all of the people in the world might take too much effort. Mandias has explored and photographed with lots of people, in locations from Japan to Denmark to Canada. He is a founding member of S(UE), and habitually makes an ass of himself. K.C. is a member of the Atlanta Urban Exploration League "AUEL" and the Southern Urban Explorers "S(UE)". For copies of the slides and additional materials please see the DEF CON 16 Archive here: