Blue Team Village at DEFCON 26: Red Team, Put Up Your Dukes?

This podcast episode is part of our Las Vegas cybersecurity event coverage called “Chats on the Road to Las Vegas”, which, of course, is centered around the extremely popular cybersecurity research and hacker events, Black Hat and DEF CON.

With a focus on the villages at DEF CON this year, Sean Martin and his co-host Selena Templeton spoke with Russell Mosley and Nolan Berry of the Blue Team Village to better understand the history of the village, what the village is all about, and what people can expect at this year’s DEF CON.

This is one of the first Blue Team Villages at a traditionally red team conference, and Russell and Nolan discuss why this is happening now, what’s changed.

For many, DEF CON epitomizes hacking which traditionally involves an offensive mentality. However, in recent years, attacks have become trivially easy to exploit in any environment meaning that effective defense has been difficult. Defenders have to deal with legacy, politics, and resource constraints and typically have less public information on how to best protect their environment when compared to the red side. This leaves defenders at DEF CON feeling a bit left out with most, if not all, of the content favoring red.

The Blue Team Village will have 5 separate tables, one for each NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) cybersecurity principle or framework for Blue Teams: recover, identify, protect, detect and respond.

There will also be valuable information on defensive security from the very basic 101-level concepts through the latest, most advanced techniques. They’ll also have contests, so you can prove your skills in securing systems, hands-on exhibits, workshops and sessions.

You’ll find the Blue Team Village at the Savoy - Flamingo:
Friday: 10:00-18:00, Saturday: 10:00-14:00, Sunday: 10:00-14:00

Stay tuned to all of our coverage at this year's Hacker Summer Camp at https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-news-event-coverage