Hacking Insights by Max Bautista

DEFCON 34: My First Con Experience

August 2026

Wednesday

I left Philly around 6 AM for the airport and immediately made my first mistake. I forgot my phone charger and had to grab one at “Gadget Express” in the airport. Initially I did not pay attention to the price until later, and apparently it was $120. Don’t shop there and make sure to remember to bring chargers.

The flight wasn’t bad. I spent most of it reading Thus Spake Zarathustra by Nietzsche.

“Too far did I fly into the future; a horror seized upon me.”

It felt relevant to AI discussions, though the book put me to sleep faster than I wanted to as this was my third time reading it. I should chose a better engaging book for the ride.

Las Vegas hit different. The moment you exit the plane, slot machines surround you. It’s surreal but on par. But the real shock was the heat. Nevada was in the middle of a heatwave, and every day was over 110°F. The air felt exactly like that SpongeBob episode where he suffocates without water.

I took a taxi from the airport as I recall seeing that recommended but I didn’t check the price beforehand and got charged $60 when it should’ve been ~$30 according to my friends. I didn’t have check-in until 4 PM, so I met up with a HackTheBox friend at OmegaMart/Area 15. This trippy psychedelic interactive museum felt like Adult Swim sponsored it and it was quite cool. Fun place though, but we were forced to leave early due to hacker curiosity (if you know, you know).

After checking into Harrahs, I grabbed some groceries from CVS, watched The Hangover, and tried to sleep early. Jet lag was rough since I’m already a terrible sleeper.

Thursday

I woke up early and grabbed my badge. Here’s the thing about Thursday: nothing actually happens. It’s just badge pickup day. They give you a handbook with surface-level info, and that’s it. I was reading it in the hallway when a friend coincidentally was sitting next to me. We didn’t realize until we were sitting near each other until he hit me up over Signal. I’d met him at a rave a year ago, my first hacker IRL friend. He’s more experienced with DEFCON, so we talked history, fake badges, deauth techniques, that sort of thing.

We hit up In-N-Out for lunch but it’s unimpressive, it tastes like a Wendy’s burger with a cult following.

The Toxic BBQ was happening, but it was way too hot outside. Instead, I decided to gamble and live out the Las Vegas tourist fantasy.

Blackjack basics I learned:

• Always hit on 11 or under
• 12-17: hit if dealer shows high card
• Never hit on 17
• Bet up after losses to recover, then normalize

Roulette: No logic, pure luck. I somehow hit 35x on $5 chips (everyone else was using $1. Didn’t realize I was being stupidly aggressive).

I made $322 though by god’s will, then got bored and walked to The LINQ where I saw hackers at Circle Bar. Ended up talking to DC710 and DC702 folks, grabbed some stickers and coins. Later that night, I got an invite to the DC562 party. A legit gathering with EDM, a CTF with terminals, and full bar/kitchen setup.

There I even met the guy with the Flock camera badge (https://x.com/Mammoth/status/2085118715276796081). Fuck mass surveillance. Connected with a ton of people, grabbed N64 controllers and stickers, played mousetrap Jenga (my fingers still hurt). Great crowd, and I headed back early since my body was still on EDT time.

Friday

The real DEFCON experience started today. A friend with a rental drove us (parking was $40, terrible value). We entered on the north side and found our Philly clique. A mutual friend was giving a talk about DC862 (New Jersey DEFCON chapter).

The talk areas used silent headphones. Genius design, but weird to see a lecture hall completely silent until applause.

I broke off solo to explore. Physical Security Village was the coolest part of the day. Everything about it was hands-on and educational. I also hit up:

• Hack5 booth (bought a few tools I haven’t previously owned)
• Lockpicking vendors (upgraded my worn Amazon set)
• Embedded Systems Village (sat down and did actual firmware walkthroughs)
• Packet Hacking Village (aesthetic was perfect, underground basement rave LAN party vibes)

I skipped the live vishing demo (line was insane) and spent most of the day aimlessly walking, which I wouldn’t recommend in hindsight. Pro tip: Read up on villages beforehand and use HackerTracker to schedule your day.

I felt simultaneously underwhelmed and overwhelmed. Everyone seemed brilliant, and I felt like a larper. Eventually made it to the Wall of Sheep (worth seeing in person), then headed back to the hotel to do TCM Security’s CTF. Finished in an hour and placed 33rd (out of 32+ who started Thursday/early Friday).

Saturday

With better bearings, I actually tried to do things:

• Battle of Bots at Social Engineering Village
• Radio Frequency talk (ironic considering the wireless headsets were being jammed by the whole place)
• Hardware Hacking Village: PIN challenge walkthrough with timing-based deduction
• Malware Development for Ethical Hackers workshop (cocomelonc’s BSides workshop at https://github.com/cocomelonc/bsprishtina-2024-maldev-workshop)
• QueerCon/CheeseCon (met some online HackTheBox friends, got cheese)
• Cold Calls vishing line was too long to wait again

Weird realization: even with “lots” to do, time flies. Most of it’s spent walking or waiting in lines. The con feels absurdly shorter than it actually is.

Finished the day with the Lonely Hacker CTF in my hotel room but didn’t make enough progress to compete seriously.

Sunday

Not much happens on Sunday either. I caught the social engineering village live calls pre qual finally though, they were pretty funny and impressive. The Social engineering village lost internet during the event and used a Tesla Starlink to stay connected.

Watched “What is it Really Like to Be a Red Teamer?” talk at the Noob Community. Then also watched the Red team village talk Hacking the Human-in-the-Loop which was actually interesting, I recommend watching that. The speaker was someone I’d met at a bar earlier. Heading back to my hotel felt right. There was an after-party, but I didn’t want to be hungover on Monday’s flight so that I skipped as well

Monday

Day of travel, 2 hours delay and got home in bed roughly at 11pm. I sure do hate traveling.

Conclusion

I’m not entirely sure if I’d go back to be honest, unless it was fully paid off. I expected it to be on the level of magical as Disneyland as a child. I don’t regret going entirely. but I don’t necessarily think I needed it. At the same time i think my expectations may have been too high. In a nutshell I’d say- Don’t go u less u have friends/peers online that you want to meet, available money or competing at a top level official CTF- it won’t be worth it. Additionally, I feel like more of a skid after, not less.

Practical Tips:

• Everything is absurdly expensive everywhere, Las Vegas is a tourist trap
• Stay hydrated constantly
• Prepare for the heat (110°F+ this year)
• Expect for a lot of walking
• Use HackerTracker to plan your day
• Budget around $4k total for the trip

Oh and DEFCON is cancelled next year.