Squidly1- Theresa Verity: Thinking Outside the Console (box)

Having seen the ads this last holiday season, you think you might know all there is to know about the new crop of console game systems. But are these, and other console game systems, just for fun and games? Could they be used for other purposes?? Yes they can. With the advent of more powerful consoles many systems have the ability to do just about anything - after all they are still computers. Two years ago I gave a presentation at ToorCon discussing the hackability and usability of hand-held game systems. Since then, I have looked at all of the popular game consoles and researched their collective potential as platforms of covert penetration testing. Many of these machines can be easily modified to execute code not originally meant for game systems. In this topic I will discuss how game consoles can be used as another avenue in the penetration of your network... Squidly1 aka Theresa Verity, is a Computer Network Defense Team Lead for the Navy - and after work she investigates network security issues and plays online. Theresa's technical background began during her childhood (long ago) with her first program, a game coded on the Commodore VIC-20. Her interest in anything computerized continued on through college with her studies as a Software Engineering major. During the last two years, after purchasing a Sony PSP, she has spent her spare time investigating possible threat vectors from the new generation of hand-held game consoles. That research evolved into talks at ToorCon7 and at the NSA's REBL Conference in 2006. She is currently a member of DC-757, Sploitcast and is an unrepentant G33k.