A gathering that began with 30 people in a hot tub in 1993 has since grown into the world’s largest hacker conference, drawing around 30,000 attendees. For the first time since 2013, a media crew has been allowed to film inside DEF CON, offering a rare look at the lives of one of the world’s most stereotyped communities.
A new Cybernews documentary premiered on YouTube on 3 August, features interviews with senior DEF CON figures, Black Badge winners, first-time visitors, and government agency DARPA officials. At a time when cybersecurity, AI, and critical infrastructure are under growing scrutiny, the documentary offers a timely look at the people and communities shaping how those systems are understood, tested, and protected.
The documentary shows DEF CON is far more than the stereotype of a hacker conference, bringing together artists, creatives, and community builders, as well as technologists from diverse backgrounds.
Jeff Moss, the founder of DEF CON, describes the event as a “metaconference” – a collection of smaller conferences within a larger one. From women in tech to military veterans, attendees come to share ideas, build connections, all come to shape their own spaces within the event.
The film also shows how DEF CON’s villages mirror the growing influence of technology across everyday life. “Technology touches every part of society now, so the community has expanded with it. The people who embraced that growth are still here,” says Alethe Denis, Global DEF CON groups coordinator.
The documentary challenges stereotypes by showing that hacking is a mindset driven by curiosity, creativity, and the urge to understand how things work. It reveals how many of the people protecting today’s technologies think like hackers – by testing boundaries, challenging assumptions, and solving problems in unexpected ways.
“As the world has gotten complicated and fragmented, people want to have authentic interactions and learn what is going on,” says Moss.
The documentary also highlights how DEF CON now has a relationship with the government. From former military leaders on stage to DARPA presenting the AIxCC challenge, the film shows how the conference has become a space where cybersecurity communities increasingly overlap.
That collaboration has real-world implications. By spotlighting efforts to identify and patch vulnerabilities in open-source software used in critical infrastructure, the film shows how DEF CON can help shape new security standards.
“Both communities recognise that cybersecurity challenges are shared challenges. They may not always agree, and we still live to play ‘spot the fed’ at DEF CON, but there is far more collaboration and mutual respect than people often assume.”
The documentary is available to watch on Cybernews’ YouTube channel.
