Welcome & Making of the Badge Talk

Architecture and Background

DEF CON 16 - The Dark Tangent & Joe "Kingpin" Grand: Welcome & Making of the Badge Talk The Dark Tangent welcomes the Defcon 16 attendees at the start of the conference. For the third year in a row, Kingpin has had the honor of designing the DEFCON Badge.

Vulnerability Analysis

No longer just a boring piece of passive material, the badge is now a full-featured, active electronic product. If you're up early enough and interested in details of the entire development process of the badge, from initial concept drawings to prototype electronics to completed units, and want to hear stories of the trials and tribulations that come with designing and manufacturing, be sure to come to this talk.

Exploitation and Demonstrations

Joe "Kingpin" Grand Kingpin is an electrical engineer, hardware hacker, and former member of L0pht Heavy Industries. Even with his distrust of big business, he has become a co-host of an upcoming engineering build show, Prototype This, for Discovery Channel.

Remediation and Defensive Strategies

Sometimes he uses his real name, Joe Grand, and invents things for his company, Grand Idea Studio (www.grandideastudio.com). He's also the sole proprietor of Kingpin Empire, a hacker-inspired merchandise outfit (www.kingpinempire.com) that gives back to the community through charitable donations. He's designed the badge for DEFCON a few times, too. For copies of the slides and additional materials please see the DEF CON 16 Archive here: