DEF CON Hackers Unite: Creating a Digital Arsenal of Democracy to Defend Against Authoritarianism

As one of the creators of the first-ever Voting Machine Hacking Village at DEF CON in 2017 and a former homeland security and cyber advisor to the Obama and Biden administrations, Jake Braun is no stranger to the world of cybersecurity. However, he's grown increasingly frustrated with the government's inability to address pressing issues like cybercrime, AI, and authoritarianism. In response, Braun has launched the Franklin project, which enlists hackers to secure critical infrastructure, including water facilities.

The second volume of the Franklin project's annual Hacker's Almanack, published earlier this month, highlights three major threats that governments have yet to fix: cybercrime, AI, and authoritarianism. The Almanack presents a year's worth of DEF CON research on these topics and shows how hackers are responding to each one. Braun says he and the rest of the DEF CON volunteers listened to "dozens and dozens" of talks before this year's three topics bubbled to the surface.

One of the major concerns raised by the Almanack is the accelerating power of AI for offense. Anthropic researcher Keane Lucas entered his company's AI coding tool Claude into seven competitions during DEF CON 33, including capture-the-flag contests. During one of these – PicoCTF – it placed in the top three percent globally, while also successfully fending off red-team attacks in the Collegiate Cyber Defense Challenge.

However, security remains an afterthought. "There's clearly more of a sense across the board than there was last year that we need the 20 critical controls for AI," Braun said, pointing to the Center for Internet Security's (CIS) Critical Security Controls as an example of what this would look like.

The cybercrime theme, "Hackers and cape and mask," emerged after listening to accounts of DEF CON researchers performing feats such as taking down Russian dark web marketplace Solaris and its affiliated hacker collective, Killnet. The global governments' effort to fight ransomware and other types of cybercrime isn't working, according to the Almanack.

The third theme, "Down with despots," didn't come together until the end of the Almanack-writing process, as Braun saw examples of civil society methods to protect data, communications, and culture against censorship, surveillance, and other kinds of oppression. This included hacker LambdaCalculus's off-grid mesh network, PirateBox, along with Jason Vogt and Josh Reiter's proposal of setting up mesh networks in Taiwan to help civilians fight a future Chinese invasion.

To combat authoritarianism, the Almanack proposes building a Digital Arsenal of Democracy, comprised of technologies like mesh networks, digital archives, PirateBox, and DNA data storage. This aligns with last year's DEF CON theme – access everywhere – and will carry over to this summer's focus on agency: "The ability of a citizen to have agency over their identity, data, and persona."

Braun is confident that DEF CON hackers will rise to the challenge. "There's a certain thing in the hacker mindset that makes them a hacker: this commitment to freedom, transparency, science, very much Ben Franklin-esque," he said. "When there's threats to that, they get super riled up. I feel like we're going to see a lot more research in this space because of what's happening around the world, including here at home."

In conclusion, the DEF CON community is sounding the alarm about the growing threats of cybercrime, AI, and authoritarianism. By launching the Franklin project and publishing the Hacker's Almanack, Braun and his team are highlighting the need for a concerted effort by the human rights community and the hacker community to secure critical infrastructure and preserve human rights around the world.

Key Takeaways:

* The DEF CON community is sounding the alarm about the growing threats of cybercrime, AI, and authoritarianism. * The Franklin project enlists hackers to secure critical infrastructure, including water facilities. * The Hacker's Almanack highlights three major threats that governments have yet to fix: cybercrime, AI, and authoritarianism. * The Digital Arsenal of Democracy proposal aims to build a network of technologies to defend against authoritarianism.

Relevant Keywords:

* Cybersecurity * DEF CON * Franklin project * Hacker's Almanack * Artificial intelligence (AI) * Cybercrime * Authoritarianism * Digital Arsenal of Democracy