We Went Virtual, What Did You Do This Summer?
COVID-19 has changed the world in more ways than one. Prior to 2020, IoT Village had never considered the possibility of making virtual content for attendees. IoT Village traveled the world sharing with conference attendees our hands-on labs, the SoHopelessley Broken CTF hacking contest, presentations, and live demos from the movers and shakers of IoT security.
When physical events came to a screeching halt this year, we knew we still wanted to share with the world everything you can find at an IoT Village event. We missed our con family, and decided that continuing to foster a connection with them was the most important thing we could do in such a challenging time for the world.
Our Leap into the Virtual Space
The goal was to ensure attendees have access to the same content as at a physical event. Most importantly, we wanted to give participants the same feel of a physical event, all from the comfort of their own home. To do this, we decided to jump headfirst into the virtual space and hosted the IoT Village Virtual Event 1.0. You can check out the talks from the event on our YouTube playlist.
Between Discord and Twitch, we created a space for hackers, professionals, students, and curious onlookers that could join an IoT Village event with the click of a button. However, unlike a physical event, the virtual event space is here to stay. We have created a permanent space for our attendees to continue interacting, learning, and growing, even after the event has come to an end. We achieved this by keeping the IoT Village Discord available as well as uploading our talks to our YouTube. This makes our community an interactive one, running 24/7.
In our Discord server, members are sharing research they are currently working on or helping each others with career advice and resume reviews. Attendees share with each other tricks to make it in the industry and tips on exploiting development, enumerating devices, analyzing router firmware, and performing remote exploits, among other things.
With the birth of the virtual IoT Village, we are reaching even more people and more countries. People from countries such as Japan, Germany, India, New Zealand, Dominican Republic, or Taiwan are interacting with IoT Village in our store, listening to our presentations or competing in our CTF for prizes from sponsors Bitdefender (Title Sponsor) and INE, formerly eLearn Security (Season Sponsor).
What We Have Learned
The biggest thing we have learned is that both sponsors and attendees still yearn for a conference vibe and ways to get involved through learning and connecting with others.
By streaming talks on Twitch, speakers are reaching thousands of more people than they could ever reach at a physical conference, where their talk is limited to the number of people who can travel to the conference and can fit into a room. Sponsors such as Refirm Labs (Season Sponsor) have a fresh space where they can continue to create and share innovate research and content as well as recruit for new talent. The IoT Village sponsors are dedicated to partnering with us to create an environment where IoT and cyber security topics are shared in a fun and engaging way. When a new sponsor joins IoT Village, they are entering a community that will only become even better by their presence and passion for helping us expand our mission of being accessible to all.
People of all ages and backgrounds are able to access the labs and start or further their knowledge of hacking and cybersecurity. At DEF CON Safe Mode, one attendee identified themselves as a rising senior in college. He expressed that the labs helped him feel prepared for the concepts and challenges he would face in his final academic year. Another stated that their positive experience with IoT Village inspired them to go back to school and get their Master’s in Cyber Security. This is why we put on IoT Village! Hearing these types of stories motivates us to create ways to reach even more people.
What the Future Holds
By converting our content to the virtual space, we knew we could expand the IoT Village family and educate and connect people who may not have been introduced at a physical conference. Now that we have expanded our reach, it’s time to expand the content as well. In 2021, IoT Village will be operating in a hybrid physical and virtual capacity. We are creating new labs on various topics that attendees have been asking for. At DEC CON 29, we will be revealing an all-new CTF, with brand new devices that have never been touched. These additions will bring a new level of competition to our 3-time black badge level CTF.
For the remainder of 2020, we will be entirely virtual. You can find us and our labs and CTF at Hack in the Box and CIA Con, to name a few.
The Wrap-up
In a time where the world is in somewhat of a shut-down capacity, it is important to continue to foster relationships with one another. We took on the challenge to make this happen! Creating a permanent virtual platform for people to connect is the first step in achieving this. In this time of remoteness, IoT Village is not as remote as it seems. We are interacting with people like never before, and couldn’t be happier. We miss our physical events and hope that all can experience them again in 2021. For now, we will be thriving in the virtual space, connecting with people all over the world who share a passion for computer science, cybersecurity, and friendship — providing people with an environment to share experiences, knowledge, and ideas.
Get involved in the remaining 2020 IoT Village season at our upcoming virtual events being hosted from all over the world. At these events you can compete in our CTF, sit in on ground breaking research presentations, or learn about hacking in one of our hands on labs created by our partner in Canada, Village Idiot Labs (VIL). Go to the IoT Village website to learn more about our upcoming events, and how you can stay connected get involved through various sponsorship opportunities.
Rachael Tubbs is the Event Coordinator for Independent Security Evaluators, a firm of security specialists that provide a wide range of services including custom security assessments and software development. ISE also runs IoT Village, which hosts talks by expert security researchers who dissect real-world exploits and hacking contests consisting of off-the-shelf IoT devices.
