back to article Meet the chaps who run the Black Hat NoC and let malware roam free

Neil Wyler and Bart Stump are responsible for managing what is probably the world’s most-attacked wireless network. The two friends, veterans among a team of two dozen, are at the time of writing knee deep in the task of running the network at Black Hat, the security event where the world reveals the latest security messes. …

  1. Ashton Black

    I would love to see a full documentary about this event. Looks like great nerdy fun!

    1. phuzz Silver badge
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Looks like great nerdy fun!

      Oh, it is. I was involved in organising the machines and network hubs for the last Access All Areas in London about 2 decades ago, and it was massively entertaining to keep an eye on it all during the day. We didn't bother with securing the machines, they were left wide open as we just assumed they would get hacked anyway. We merely made sure we could re-image machines where needed.

      The funniest was that we had to gently persuade visitors from NOT quickly checking their email when they noticed we were live on the Net (if I recall correctly the whole network was hanging off some ISDN routers someone organised - the Net was still pretty new in those days). At least 75% of the machines had people running network sniffers :).

      Most impressive sight of that day (IMHO): a 12 year old girl typing a quick email to a friend, but via telnet to port 23 and entering the required SMTP commands..

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I think that was actually an FBI agent, as most 12 year girls on the Interwebs are...

        :-)

      2. NotBob

        Was she Elaine (Riot Prrl)?

        xkcd.com/343/

      3. Vic

        a 12 year old girl typing a quick email to a friend, but via telnet to port 23 and entering the required SMTP commands.

        I imagine that would be port 25, that being the standard SMTP port...

        Vic.

  2. wyatt

    Nerdy and relevant! I look forward to reading about the pass challenge, what people are able to deduce about the pass amazes me.

  3. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    Weird

    Why does the Black Hat NoC resemble a close-up of a stylized vulture??

    1. Dadmin

      Re: Weird

      Maybe they bit the had that fed...

      Why is it NoC? The proper acronym for Network Ops Centre is NOC, not NoC. Silly, elreg, can't be bothered with the shift key... me forgets how it hurts them so... But really, it's Internet, not fucking internet, dufuses. When I see the terms used properly, I'll know the site is about the come down and turn themselves over to their new overlords; the Fox IT Channel. :P

      Here you go, for free even...

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_operations_center

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