This year I attended my first HOPE conference.  HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth) is a hacker conference organized by 2600 The Hacker Quarterly.  After hearing about the talks they had at 2008’s HOPE (The Last HOPE) when I was listening to the 2600 podcast, I knew I had to attend this year.  I was not disappointed.

HOPE, if this one is an indication of how they usually are, is like an East Coast version of Defcon.  Really, the only difference is that the atmosphere of the talks is slightly different given the HOPE being located in NYC vs Defcon being located in Las Vegas.  While the playful hacker spirit is present at both, there’s usually an extra bit of an anything goes feeling in Vegas.  There were also a few talks that were presenting preliminary versions of the data they hoped to present at Blackhat/Defcon.  It makes sense, since those are the more prestigious hacker cons.