In Vienna, the spy capital of the world, I gave a closed-door keynote at an invite-only intelligence conference: “That Time I Hacked #Venezuela: Digital Sabotage Against Authoritarianism.” In November 2025

A real world case study of how an authoritarian regime like #Maduro 's, weaponizes Western technology platforms, digital infrastructure, and data analytics to monitor, persecute, and oppress civilians. And how an ethical hacker team, myself and the White Lotus Security Research Team, carried out targeted operational interventions against the systems being used to enable political kidnappings, abductions, and coordination between state agencies and criminal networks, with civilian safety and preservation of evidence as the hard lines.

#DeepSec #DeepINTEL, the exclusive conference has now issued an official press release on that briefing. Read it here in German: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/chris-kubecka_how-to-hack-a-modern-dictatorship-with-ai-activity-7414789443666124800-cydh

And if you want the wider playbook, I wrote How to Hack a Modern Dictatorship with AI: The Digital CIA/OSS Sabotage Manual https://amzn.to/4neTNPK

Misc story time:
tldr: I've been collecting security conference stickers for 20+ years and just now got around to using them ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm not the kind of person to put stickers on my laptop. This means that for 23 years (apparently), when I got stickers from a conference, I kept them, put them in a bag, moved them from house-to-house, but never actually did anything with them. Until now.

I finally found a usage; which is decorating the otherwise-sketchy-looking metal ammo case which @VeronicaKovah & I are now using to carry phones with us to trainings. We watched some videos on youtube that make it seem like those LiPo fire-protection bags would do a whole lot of not-much in the event that a fire broke out on one of the batteries. But a simple metal box seemed to do a lot better in terms of containing the flames.

So we of course expect that airport security will always stop us when traveling with them (though at least this time our TSA pre-check status seemed to give us a pass on the way out). But the expectation is that contrary to what you might thing, adding hacking conference stickers will actually be disarming, rather than alarming, with security personnel - at least when compared to the alternative of seeing a raw ammo canister ;)

The oldest sticker seems to be from DEF CON 10 (X), circa 2002 (my first DEF CON was 8 FWIW). In general I don't seek out stickers, but I do think the BadBIOS and "I want to believe" ones are things I probably got from Joe Fitz as they were of-the-moment and relevant to my interests. (If you're not familiar with the latter, it's from a very FUDish cover article [1]). I could have completely filled them, but I left a little bit of space for the future. Check out the larger pics for a potential stroll down memory lane. (RIP Shmoocon, Hackademic.info, NoSuchCon. Memento mori conference organizers ;))

#DEFCON, #BlackHat, #ShmooCon, #BlueHat, #RingZer0, #HackLU, #HardwearIO, #DistrictCon, #HackFest, #NoSuchCon, #DeepSec, #HITB, #HackersOnTheHill

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-how-china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies

Hm, der Espresso ist ein beliebtes Target auf der #deepsec 🤔

#hacktheplanet

Auf der #deepsec wurde ein Tool vorgestellt welches auf Organisations-Ebene GitHub(und bald auch Gitlab)-Settings auditieren kann.

https://github.com/aplite-de/gitsec

#git #github #gitlab #infosec

DeepSec 2024 Keynote – The Mind Bomb

https://whalers.ir/blog/deepsec-2024-keynote-the-mind-bomb/3793/

DeepSec 2024 Opening – Conference Days are now live

https://whalers.ir/blog/deepsec-2024-opening-conference-days-are-now-live/3791/

Welcome to the weekend! 🙌🏻

If you want to know how Russia is attacking our countries using disinformation, I recently held this 50 minute talk in Vienna, which is free to watch on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/wnLviKf13lc?si=0RIZjm_7BIPRaxlt

#DeepSec

Dokoukal jsem právě prezentaci @randahl z #DeepSec 2024 a byť to bylo celkem #USA a #Rusko centrický co se příkladů týče, rozhodně to stojí za shlédnutí, byť má hodinu.

Já si ale myslim, že tady na #Fediverse / #Mastodonu a dalších asi víme, jaký jsou rizika #dezinfo na socnetu, kde vyhodí 80% personálu, protože "moderátoři nejsou potřeba", ale jak tohle dostat k běžnýmu Frantovi ze seníku, to je pro mě otázka, na kterou nenacházim odpověď.

Každopádně kdo jste viděl (a klidně i kdo ne), klidně vesele #diskutujme, třeba mě něčim inspirujete 😀

#politika
RE: mastodon.social/users/randahl/…

Our 2-day training at @deepsec is a wrap!
It was the first time I delivered a deep-dive focusing entirely on the #psychology interplaying in #socialengineering & #HUMINT operations at a cybersecurity conference. Happy to report, that there is a lot of interest on the topic.

It is very energizing to have a class full of curious minds that do not only explore the concepts being taught, but also apply deep critical thinking in the way they work the class material and the questions they bring up. Their input was helpful for everyone in class.

The entire DeepSec (training & conference) was once again a blast! Being able to teach but then also to sit and learn from the speakers at the conference will always give me a feeling of perfect balance.

A happy highlight is that you also get to meet old and new friends from the community again! 🙏🏻

Thank you to everyone that attended the class, to the friends that made the dinners & breaks so joyful, and to the organizers René Pfeiffer, Susan, & others for bringing us all together for another year! 🥂

#infosec #conference #cybersecurity #training #DeepSec #DeepSec2024

Just wrapped up an amazing week at @deepsec 2024!

It was an honor to present with Bruce on emerging AWS cloud security threats. We had an engaging audience with thought-provoking questions about new threats, other cloud providers, and future research directions.

Plus, the IoT CTF challenge was a fun highlight!

Thanks to everyone who made this event so memorable.

#DeepSec #Cybersecurity #CloudSecurity #AWS #IoTSecurity

What a privilege to speak at #DeepSec in the beautiful city of Vienna! ❤️

At this time of year, the city is full of Christmas markets where you can buy the hot cocktail Glühwein, Christmas bakery, and more.

The architecture has an interesting historic vibe sprinkled with a touch of 20th century modernism.

I really love Vienna for avoiding the skyscrapers, thereby allowing the sun to reach the streets everywhere.

With the airport nearby, I warmly recommend Vienna for a quick weekend trip too.

The Mind Bomb
@randahl

The most used apps in Russia, probably very similar in many other countries which has limitations to free media.
#deepsec conference🎩👻

the security risks of the increased decoupling of human interaction from the physical world, and exploring how direct and indirect abuse of social media and their content curation algorithms affecting the minds of millions and potentially be leveraged for hacking democracy itself.

Some cloud security tips I got from #deepsec conference!
It is critical to know, cloud security is big.

#DeepSec has finished for this year. It’s a very good conference and it’s in Vienna, so check it out next year in November! I have learned a lot, met old and new friends and am quite knackered now- getting older is taking its toll…

DeepSec 2024 Opening – Conference Days are now live

DeepSec 2024 has opened. Enjoy the two days of presentations, discussions, and insights into how to improve the security of your information technology infrastructure.

Our keynote will deep dive into the dangerous world of mind manipulation. Social engineering is a threat from the past. Political engineering is the new kid on the bl

https://blog.deepsec.net/deepsec-2024-opening-conference-days-are-now-live/

#Conference #DeepSec

On to Vienna for #DeepSec tomorrow; maybe Deutsche Bahn is uncharacteristically on time and delivers me there in one piece.
See you there?

Some notes for my upcoming #DeepSec talk in November published by the conference: https://blog.deepsec.net/deepsec-2024-talk-far-beyond-the-perimeter-exploring-external-attack-surfaces-stefan-hager-khae/

#math exam is behind me, now I am looking forward to #elbsides in a few days, and later in the year, Vienna and #DeepSec. But this weekend I aim to be lazy and do *nothing*.

DeepSec wishes a Happy New Year 2024!

We have been radio-silent throughout the December, because post-processing DeepSec and DeepINTEL 2023 took longer than usual. For everyone doing system maintenance, the month of December is also a wonderful opportunity to do some work behind the scenes. Thanks to the security bulletin about SMTP smuggling, there were some additional

https://blog.deepsec.net/deepsec-wishes-a-happy-new-year-2024/

#Administrivia #Communication #DeepINTEL #DeepSec

Nach zwei spannenden Tagen #DeepSec und sehr netten Begegnungen im Bett angekommen. Das Wochenende ist hoch willkommen. 🐑💤