DEF CON and Baidu Security Nurturing China’s Hacker Community

DEF CON China 1.0 kicked off in Beijing’s 798 art district on May 31 gathering hackers and computer security professionals from all over the world.

This is the second time that the U.S. based hacker convention was held in China, and DEF CON China is trying hard to expand its presence.

“In the next four or five years, we can build that community in China, the community of hacker spirt and security geeks,” said Jeff Moss, founder of DEF CON.

Community and people are at the core of DEF CON’s ideals. “No matter how much you are into the technology, you are going to still have to deal with people,” Moss said in his opening speech.

Founded by Jeff Moss in 1993, DEF CON is one of the world’s largest hacking conferences. Hackers and corporate IT professionals flood Las Vegas once a year to share ideas and trends in computer security.

China held a beta version of DEF CON in 2018 for the first time, with Baidu Security co-hosting the convention. That was also the first time that DEF CON travelled abroad.

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“For years, Baidu has been working on artificial intelligence (AI), and Baidu Security has been dealing with AI security, since there are lots of problems such as machine vision,” said Ma Jie, Baidu Security general manager.

DEF CON and Baidu Security are confident their collaboration could yield solutions to many computer security problems.

“We are going to have to work together to solve these problems because it’s global problems,” said Moss.

In roughly three months, DEF CON 27 will reach Las Vegas, U.S., where it has been held for the past years.

Featured photo credit to DEF CON China