DEF CON 24 SE Village - James Powell  - You Are Being Manipulated
Channel: DEFCONConference
Date: 2017-01-05

Description: You are being manipulated. There is constant pressure coming from companies, people, and attackers. Millions are spent researching and studying your weaknesses. The attack vectors are subtle. Most times we don’t realize that manipulation has occurred until it is too late. Fear not, we can harden our defenses. We can put safeguards in place to help avoid being the victim.

For me, the answer came from an unlikely source: my daughter. Small children are fantastic. Society has not yet influenced their development; therefore, children are relentless in pursuing their aims. Since they are naive to right and wrong, they will use any tool available to get their goal.

How does this help? My daughter became my trainer, and this talk discusses how interacting with her has improved my defenses. Comparing her strategies to real world examples will show how to build a training framework of your own. Access to small children is not needed.

BIO:
James Powell is a senior software engineer at Cisco Systems. He has been fascinated with manipulation since his childhood. Despite receiving a degree in psychology, he spent 18 years as a professional in the Information Technology space. James spent the first seven years of his career as a system and network administrator before moving to the dark art of programming. Two years ago he stopped dabbling and tumbled down the security rabbit hole. This journey makes him believe that he is finally using his degree professionally. During his downtime, James can be found practicing martial arts, brewing beer and mead, or writing.