Video: So you want to be a hacker? Advice from the kids of DEF CON
| Las Vegas
They picked locks and ripped apart laptops and other electronic gadgets聽to explore what's inside. They attacked circuit boards with聽soldering irons. And they tried to hack Minecraft.聽
These are hacker kids. From 8 to 16 years old,聽they gather at聽, held聽at the DEF CON hacker conference in Las Vegas,聽to learn about cybersecurity from professionals聽and their peers.聽
R00tz Asylum lets kids "have a safe playground and an area for them to learn the basics of hacking, without getting themselves into trouble," says its cofounder, the聽15-year-old hacker who goes by the name CyFi.聽
Like many adults who attend DEF CON, these kids also come with their own research 鈥� and hacks 鈥� to show off during the Vegas conference.聽
Evan Robertson, 10, for instance, demonstrated how his聽"elite social engineering skills" tricked dozens of people to connect to a WiFi hotspot and agree to terms of conditions that he says "no one in the world should agree to."聽
His point: People don't care聽enough about their online privacy.
Mollee McDuff, 13, who goes by the hacker handle Stitch, presented ways to modify Minecraft to give her more resources in the virtual worlds she creates.聽"The possibilities are endless with programming."聽
So Passcode wanted to know: What's the first step that kids 鈥� or anyone, really 鈥� should take if they want to be a hacker?
