Experts from the CIA and FBI rubbed shoulders with hardcore computer hackers at the conference. Once the sole preserve of hackers, Defcon has now become a recognised fixture in the IT industry's calendar.

One presentation showed delegates how hackers can bypass the controls restricting user access in the Windows Active Directory due to poor configuration of the software.

Phil Cracknell, security consultant at NetSecurity, said this kind of threat has been largely overlooked by companies, partly because computer viruses and worms are more visible and easier to detect.

By Cliff Saran at Computer Weekly.

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