Jeff Moss, founder of the famed DEF CON and Black Hat conferences, joins Vivek Ramachandran for another episode of the Be Fearless Podcast. Jeff reveals how DEF CON’s new one-roof strategy at the Las Vegas Convention Center has transformed the conference experience, while preserving its unique hacker culture that has endured for decades. He explains why browsers have become the prime battleground for attackers - with everyone using browsers, it's a numbers game where “somebody somewhere is going to click on something.”
The conversation covers everything from mesh networks connecting the hacker community year-round to the emerging threat of browser-native ransomware that targets cloud storage through identity theft. Jeff also dives into the privacy renaissance driving people toward distributed platforms like Mastodon, where monetization and algorithmic amplification take a backseat to community-driven content.
0:00 DEF CON's emergency venue move and its unexpected benefits
8:20 Preserving hacker culture as DEF CON has grown
22:39 This year's DEF CON physical badge and mesh network initiatives
26:42 How 500+ volunteer "goons" make DEF CON happen
38:30 Browser security as the new attack frontier
48:50 AI agents, Browser-Native Ransomware and Deepfakes
1:00:09 On peer-to-peer communication and decentralized alternatives
1:06:51 Angel investing in cybersecurity startups
🔔 Follow Jeff and Vivek on:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffmoss/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivekramachandran/

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