Welcome to the Con
Conference Details and Information
SAINTCON 2017 Attendees,
We are getting close to the kickoff of SAINTCON, and the conference committee could not be more excited. SAINTCON continues to grow and we have already once again blown through our previous registration record and are on track to sell as many as 1000 tickets to the conference this year.
To prepare you for SAINTCON, whether this is your first time, or if you are returning for your 16th year, you will want to read these details to know about everything that is going on at SAINTCON, and be aware of everything you need to know to take full advantage of what the conference offers.
The following email is almost everything you need to know about SAINTCON.
--Jup1t3r
TLDR; Just Read it! Lots of good details and info in this email.
CONFERENCE DETAILS
CONFERENCE VENUE
SAINTCON 2017 will be held October 10-13, 2017
At the Utah Valley Convention Center, located at
220 Center Street, Provo Utah 84601
PARKING WHILE ATTENDING SAINTCON
Parking during SAINTCON will be a challenge. The City of Provo has blocked off one of the largest and closest parking lots due to building demolitions in the area. There is parking available, but you may end up walking a few blocks to get to the conference center. Parking attendants will be available at most city parking lots to direct traffic and make sure you find a spot if you are driving. The Parking Map is available here: PARKING MAP
We encourage you to use public transit if possible to attend SAINTCON
UTA is offering a $15 4-Day pass to SAINTCON attendees. These passes will be available at the Conference on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Transit to the Convention Center is easy and we have the following flyer available to make it easier: UTA FLYER
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Our Tetris grand masters have completed the schedule, and it is posted to the SAINTCON website. CONFERENCE SCHEDULE. We encourage you to review the schedule, and pick the classes and trainings that interest you most. Some sessions are bound to be popular, and seating may be limited. Lining up outside the room prior to it starting to ensure you get a seat. Seating is first come first served. Signing up on SCHED.ORG will guarantee you a seat if the session is full. Please visit saintcon2017.sched.com for more details.
PRE-REGISTRATION EVENT
To help with lines, and to allow us to work out any registration bugs early, we are holding a Pre-Registration event on Monday the 9th, at 6:00p at the Convention Center. Come get your badge early and have it assembled before you arrive on Tuesday. Registration will close at 8:00p sharp so please come before that. The HHV will be open to allow for badge assembly until 9:00p. We will close promptly at 9p to allow the committee to get some rest after a long day of setup.
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION
Registration will be open daily. On Tuesday we will open registration by 7:00a for those early-birds that want to arrive and get started building their badge before the start of the conference. PLEASE BRING YOUR QR CODE. During registration you were sent a QR Code. That will make registration go much faster for everyone. If you do not have it, it’s OK we can find you manually, but it will take longer. BRING YOUR ID. Conference Passes will only be given to the person who appears on the registration entry.
TRANSFERRING A REGISTRATION
If you need to transfer your ticket to another person, we have that service available. Tickets for SAINTCON will only be given to the person who’s name appears on the registration. To transfer a ticket, please visit: REGISTRATION TRANSFER SELF SERVICE
TRAININGS
This year you may notice on the schedule that we have more room for trainings. Not only is there more room, but trainings now fill the entire duration of the conference. The feedback on trainings has been so positive that we have expanded them to fit demand. Trainings are also first come first served.
LEADERSHIP STRAND
This year we have expanded our offerings in the Executive Leadership Strand. Our incredible partners at the Utah Education and Telehealth Network have done all of the coordination and planning to make this a great year to be involved in this event.
WHAT TO BRING
SAINTCON is a highly technical conference. In order to get the most out of it, we encourage you to bring your favorite technology. Laptop is encouraged, but we encourage you to bring one that does not have PII or other sensitive information. We monitor the network for attacks, but we do not guarantee a clean network.
Bring your curiosity and an open-mind. If this is your first SAINTCON, you may be surprised by a talk or topic. We do not shy away from tough topics and discussion. We may not solve the worlds security problems, but we do discuss them openly with all opinions respected.
Bring your hardware projects. You can get some help and ideas on how to improve projects you may be working on. There are plenty of experts and hobbyists around to give advice and provide assistance.
NETWORK ACCESS
SAINTCON has a long tradition in providing FAST and reliable network access during the conference. This year will be no different. Thanks to Comcast Business, we have 1Gbps of available bandwidth during the conference and because of Cisco, we have the latest and fastest wireless network gear. You will have a pleasant network experience this year.
SSID: SAINTCON
PSK: wifi4all
SAINTCON COMMS
We encourage everyone to join the SAINTCON Comms Slack Team. This is where you can communicate with Conference Organizers, Contest and Events staff, and all of your fellow attendees. Offering a common communications channel enhances the experience during the conference and allows you to "join the conversation" . To join: SAINTCOMMS
GET THE LATEST NEWS AND UPDATES
Twitter is our official news and information outlet. Please follow these users during the conference:
@SAINTCON - Official Conference General Feed
@SAINTCONHC - Hackers Challenge Game Updates and Live Feed
@SAINTCONVillage - Village Updates and Information
@SAINTCONHHV - Hardware Hacking Village
@SAINTCONLPV - Lock Pick Village
@SAINTCONLABS - SAINTCON Labs
OUR SPONSORS
We are grateful for our sponsors. Attendees need to know that without these great sponsors, SAINTCON would not be possible in the rich and effective manner that it is. Please spend some time visiting their booths on TUE/WED/THU. Thank them for coming to SAINTCON and supporting the community. Sponsors are listed here: SAINTCON SPONSORS
FOOD AND LUNCHES AND DRINKS
For those of you with a MEAL PASS, you will be given a meal ticket allowing you access to the food area during the conference. This meal ticket will also allow you to have unlimited refills on drinks during the conference at the concessions stand in the Expo Area. Please take good care of your meal ticket because lost tickets cannot be re-issued. Unlimited drinks will only be available when using the issued UVCC Cup with a valid meal ticket.
Drinks for non-food ticketed attendees will be offered at the discount rate of $1.50/fill.
We are providing 1.5 Hours for lunch daily to allow attendees to fan out into the city for food. There are MANY shops and restaurants close by offering a variety of great food options.
VILLAGES
HARDWARE HACKING VILLAGE
The place to go to build your badge, and learn how to interact with hardware on a completely different level. The HHV is staffed by some of the best hardware minds in the community. Come to just build your badge, or get tips and tricks on how to make it even better.
LOCK PICK VILLAGE
We have recruited once again @jimylongs, a longtime Lock Sport enthusiast and all round Lock Picking Expert to run our LPV this year. We have also made some significant improvements to this village, and have added a lot of new lock related activities to enhance the experience.
SAINTCON: LABS
This new event will allow you to get your hands on equipment and technology tools that are sometimes expensive or hard to acquire. We have a wide-range of hardware including: HackRF-Ones, Proxmark RFID Tools, SDR Devices, RaspberryPis, NFC Tools, Wifi Pineapples, LANTurtles, RubberDuckies, and SO MUCH MORE. These devices can be checked out and will be accompanied with labs that will allow you to play with and learn these tools. Labs are pre-defined and configured for easy setup and use.
CONTESTS AND EVENTS
MINI MYSTERY CHALLENGE
New this year, we are pleased to have 1o57 (Ryan Clarke) and his crew from Curious Codes be onsite to bring SAINTCON the Mini Mystery Challenge that was absent from DEF CON this year. If you are interested in Cryptography, Ciphers, and related challenges. We are not going to give away anything here, but this challenge is as something you will not want to miss.
RED VS BLUE
Presented by Compunet, this competition is a great opportunity for you to get some experience in both offense and defensive security skills and techniques. This exercise is geared toward those who have little to no RvB experience, and will focus more on skills development than actual winning. SEATING IS LIMITED for this event, so if you are interested, you will need to get there early to ensure you get a spot. We are excited for this event, and even more excited that Compunet is willing to run it for us. Details and Schedule are on the website.
PASSWORD CRACKING COMPETITION
Have a password cracking rig? Just interested in Password Cracking? The Password Cracking Competition will be an event that allows the experienced password crackers and the unexperienced alike. If you have cracked passwords before, or would just like to learn how to get started, this event will provide incentive with cool prizes. This event starts on Tuesday at 1:00p in the Expo arena.
HACKERS CHALLENGE GAME
This contest has become a legend for SAINTCON, and is one of the things that makes the conference unique. The 2017 game will not disappoint. For those of you playing the game this year, come prepared for new and exciting challenges. The details about the game have been posted to the website and can be found here: HACKERS CHALLENGE DETAILS If you have never played this game, it is something that you should at least try. Even if you are not playing to win, the skills and depth of puzzles will challenge you to learn new skills. The ultimate winner will also receive the coveted BLACK BADGE of SAINTCON.
THE VAULT
We have made some significant investments in both time and money into the VAULT. The VAULT is the SAINTCON Physical Security challenge. We have added more obstacles and order of operations aspects to the vault. New this year, the vault is a spectator sport with the vault in open view of everyone. Teams will be given five minutes to qualify to enter the room, and an additional 5 minutes to complete the in-room challenge(s).
LOCK PICKING COMPETITION
A good Lock Pick Village needs a great Lock Picking Competition. So of course we will be adding this to the mix. Come to the LPV to learn how to pick locks, and then participate in the lock pick competition. Our local expert @jimylongs will be running this epic event out of the LPV throughout the conference.
TAMPER EVIDENT CHALLENGE
This event will run in two phases this year. Phase one is for ~300 lucky people who get there early enough to participate. We have developed a take-home challenge for you to work on during the conference. Phase 1 includes a variety of tamper evident seals. Those that complete phase one, will be eligible for one of the ~50 Tamper Evident Challenge Cases. These cases if properly accessed and returned without obvious entry scars will be eligible for prizes. Phase One begins after the Keynote Session, and Phase two begins after you turn in your phase one challenge. All phase two entries need to be turned in before 5:00p Thursday to be evaluated and graded.
BROMIUM - BYOM CHALLENGE (UNOFFICIAL)
One of our sponsors has brought a unique challenge to SAINTCON this year, and is offering some serious cash if someone can land malware on their system and have it run properly. Details are on the Bromium website here: BYOM CHALLENGE Bring Your Own Malware #BYOM
HAK-IN-THE-BOX POPUP HACKERSPACE (UNOFFICIAL)
An unofficial event run by Kampf and D4rkm4tter. This is an off-site hackerspace for chilling and building. More details can be found here: HAK-IN-THE-BOX
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
CODE OF CONDUCT
While attending SAINTCON we expect people to be respectful of others, and their views. SAINTCON and the UtahSAINT Organization does not tolerate violent, hateful, or disruptive behaviors or speech. By attending SAINTCON you agree to follow the code of conduct posted here: CODE OF CONDUCT
MESSAGE FROM JUP1T3R
I could not be more honored and humbled by the growth and involvement of this great security conference. For myself and all of the conference committee members, it is truly a labor of love for our attendees and the local and regional security communities. I would like to extend my appreciation to the committee for the countless hours of work and coordination they have done throughout the year. Their contribution is deeply felt and deserving of wide recognition. To our volunteers as well, they help make the conference possible and run smooth. We hope that you enjoy SAINTCON. Can’t wait to meet you all, interact and learn together. Find me at the con and say hello. --Jup1t3r