By Jack Morse2019-08-10 21:05:31 UTC
A man in a hotdog suit repeatedly smashes a computer with a sledgehammer as raucous cheers fill the room.
No, you did not just wander into a David Lynch dreamscape, but rather the d(struction)20 CTF at the annual DEF CON hacking conference in Las Vegas. The competition, which pits a group of hackers and researchers against each other in random security and cryptography challenges, comes with a very DEF CON-esque twist: Participants are subject to the roll of a 20-sided die, and the resulting number corresponds to physical damage inflicted upon their computer. Then they have to complete the next challenge.
Possible outcomes from each roll include: drops, hammer smashes, being placed in a trash bag filled with iron filings and shaken up, random deletion of data, having an inverted can of duster unloaded inside your computer (thus freezing it), and, oh yeah, watching your device get fried with a Tesla-coil gun.
There's even a 7-year-old who will black out your screen and keys with a sharpie for good measure. Or, if she's feeling spiteful, she might write "you are dumb" across a participant's monitor. Spoiler: She was feeling spiteful.
"Do you have what it takes to build a computer that can withstand all sorts of damage," asks the event page. "Alternatively, do you have a computer that you care so little about that you are willing to risk it being destroyed in front of a crowd of cheering hac ..
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