Egyptian Hackers

The following post has been published on Eglug (Egyptian Linux Users Group) by printf@drupal.org,

I was just wondering if anybody would be interested in such an event? Basically, it should be something like DEF CON, but with more focus on introducing the concepts of and raising the public awareness about the digital world's (in)security as well as providing some means of legal entertainment for the ones with advanced skills. My initial plan was to organize a 2-3 days event with talk sessions/discussion forums about different topics in computer security and on the side a series of challenging games to test the players skills and knowledge.

It is really nice idea to have such kind of events here in Egypt, but the problem is that it is only few people who know what hacking really is. Most of the people here in Egypt and the Middle East think of hacking as the art of using some software tools to get some credit cards numbers or send zillions of packets to a web server to take it out of service. For me, hacking is the art of pushing a system beyond its limits, or forcing it to do things beyond the normal usage of it. I think we may encourage people to participate in some projects like porting linux to new hardwares (smart phones, play station, DSL modems, etc), writing some kernel modules, finding back-doors in some protocols or standards and create tools to use such vulnerabilities, etc.

However we may arrange for such meetings in parallel. A good starting point is a Call for Papers where people shall send some articles or ideas for topics they may talk about. One more thing is having a wiki, which is already there, but more people are encouraged to participate and share their ideas there.

Tags: Hacking, Linux, Gr33n Data