DEF CON is one of the oldest and largest hacker conventions in the world, held annually in Las Vegas. According to DEF CON’s own archives page, the first event, DEF CON 1, took place June 9 to 11, 1993, at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The convention was founded by the hacker known as the Dark Tangent, and it has run every year since, with the archives listing every event from DEF CON 1 through the most recent editions.
Over three decades DEF CON grew from a small gathering into a sprawling event with tens of thousands of attendees, drawing security researchers, penetration testers, government personnel, students, and hobbyists. The DEF CON archives document this continuity year by year, alongside special events such as pandemic-era online editions, showing how the convention adapted while keeping its identity intact.
DEF CON is closely associated with Capture the Flag, a competitive hacking format in which teams attack and defend systems to score points. The DEF CON CTF became one of the most prestigious competitions in the field, and the format spread to security communities worldwide. Talks at DEF CON have repeatedly disclosed serious vulnerabilities, sometimes provoking legal threats, and the convention has long sat at the friction point between security research and the law.
A distinctive part of the culture is the badge. DEF CON badges are often custom electronic devices, sometimes functioning as puzzles, games, or working hardware, and “badge hacking” is a hobby in its own right. The badges, the villages devoted to specific topics such as lockpicking or car hacking, and the contests together make DEF CON as much a participatory subculture as a conference.
DEF CON is a central institution of hacker culture, a community whose other touchpoints in this library include the Chaos Communication Congress in Europe and the technically inventive world of the demoscene. Its concerns connect directly to penetration testing, to the policy battles of the crypto wars, and to high-profile security events such as the Stuxnet worm.