Resorts World Las Vegas, a hotel that is hosting attendees of the DEF CON hacking conference this week, will perform daily inspections of rooms including those displaying a privacy sign, according to a letter from the hotel given to guests. An information security professional posted a photo of the letter online. Members of the cybersecurity community have reacted with a mix of anger and disappointment on social media.

“Welcome, and thank you for choosing Resorts World Las Vegas. We are pleased that you have joined us, as you have chosen to stay with us for relaxation, fun and excitement!” the message, written on hotel letterhead, reads.

“As you may or may not know, a well-known hacking convention will be held in Las Vegas during your stay,” it adds. DEF CON runs from August 8 to 11, with many attendees already in the city for the separate Black Hat cybersecurity conference or other events. “We remain committed to our guests’ safety and understand the utmost importance of cybersecurity, as well.”

The letter then describes what staff at Resorts World Las Vegas will be doing: “In an effort to increase the safety of our guests, we will be conducting scheduled, brief visual and non-intrusive room inspections daily beginning Monday, August 5. Rooms with a privacy sign will be included as part of the inspection process.”

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 171 points 2 years ago (13 children)

But... it's cybersecurity. What is a "brief visual and non-intrusive room inspection" even looking for? Anonymous masks? Green terminals with scrolling text? People shouting "enhance" and/or "I'm in"?

  • source
  • hideshow 13 child comments
  • [–] 69 points 2 years ago

    Possibly they’re looking for people assembling their sniper rifles, or trying to ensure that no hotel room gets gutted to become some group’s command HQ with 50 amps of electronics with no shielding sprouting from the wall sockets and clean (de)soldering stations set up alongside an electron microscope?

    I know what’s gone on in those hotel rooms in past years, and a lot of it is stuff I wouldn’t want to have to deal with as a hotelier.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 26 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Captain Crunch whistles.

    I've heard you can bankrupt financial institutions with one of those.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    For those who missed the joke: Payphone hackers (often called phreakers) discovered that a toy whistle from Captain Crunch cereal boxes could easily be modified to play the specific tone that payphones listened for to indicate that a coin had been inserted. Basically, the phone company didn’t know when a coin has been put in, without some sort of signal from the pay phone. And typically, the only lines run to the phone were the actual phone line. So the pay phone would play a specific 2600Hz tone, indicating that a coin was inserted.

    Using this toy whistle, you could essentially use payphones for free, and it was entirely untraceable until the company emptied the phone and counted the coins in the collection bin. In an era when cellphones were only for millionaires and were the size of literal bricks the world was almost entirely dependent on pay phones unless you were at home. So this was a major discovery for phreaks, who quickly began experimenting to see what other tones may be used to send signals.

    Naturally, the phone companies panicked, and quickly had the cereal company pull the toys from future boxes.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [+] 64 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (25 children)
    load more comments (25 replies)
    [–] 49 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Las Vegas always has their SWAT team on standby during Defcon, in case they need to shoot the internet.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 45 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    How long until the CEO of this hotel gets an email to his personal email address containing a .zip of all of their customer's PII?

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 42 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    "scheduled" - We're telling you when we're coming, hide yo' shit!

    OTOH - WTF do they think they're looking for? I don't expect hotel staff to know a nefarious device from a multi-port USB hub.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 42 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Hotel clerk: Sir, is that dangerous equipment you're setting up?

    Hacker: It's just a WiFi coconut, a rubber duck, a flipper zero, and a few IMSI catchers.

    Clerk: Okay then. So, carry on I guess?

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 39 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    They are gonna find sooooo many Bad Dragon dildos.

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • load more comments (4 replies)
    [–] 36 points 2 years ago*

    Would be great to find out that this wasn’t a real notice, someone just social-engineered hotel letterhead from three different hotels and printed up something inflammatory to catch the community’s attention.

  • source
  • [–] 32 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    They put the fake ATMs in the lobby and the "free wifi" on balloons in the vendor hall anyway.

    Also, if you vend or buy anything there, stick to cash.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 31 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    For anyone else curious which hotels are affected by this measure:

    • Hilton Las Vegas
    • Conrad Las Vegas
    • Crockfords Las Vegas
  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (2 replies)
    [–] 22 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    They appear to be starting this before the event, so something has them spooked (could just be the con full of spooks). Also with the volume of technical know-how that is going to be in attendance I think

    1. There is no way someone wont spot funny bususiness if a group or indivudal is trying to pull something.

    2. If a visual inspection is all their doing (unlikely) then this amounts to nothing more that security theatre. If they are being more invasive the attendees will know (its DEF CON for fuck sake).

    3. This may just prompt the attendees to book at another resort next year and hurt the hotel in the long run, seeing as this is very close to the opening of the con I dont see many groups changing their booking in time.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 18 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    They did know announcing this ahead of time is just begging to have their system hacked and taken down, right?

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • load more comments (4 replies)
    [+] 15 points 2 years ago
    [–] 14 points 2 years ago

    I think they started doing room checks in Vegas after that one guy sniped the music festival. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Las_Vegas_shooting

  • source
  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago

    Well, I found the CTF targets.

  • source
  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    have past attendees done something to make administration feel this is necessary?

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago

    brief visual and non-intrusive room inspections daily [...] Rooms with a privacy sign will be included as part of the inspection process

    The contradictions in this phrasing are giving me a headache.

    Also: this is DEF CON. The first mistake was telling them you were coming.

  • source
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    People in here speculating about them looking for "hacker shit" and I'm assuming it's sex trafficking shit.

  • source
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    It's probably guns. That guy who shot all those people at the music festival in Vegas snuck a small arsenal into his room and they didn't notice until the shooting.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • load more comments (4 replies)
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    "Evil maid" becomes more than a metaphor.

  • source
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago
    load more comments
    view more: next ›