Greg Conti & Tom Cross – Influence Operations: Tactics, Defense, and Exploitation - DCTLV2025 **Saturday/Sunday Training**

**Please note: This two-day training will be offered on Saturday and Sunday (August 9-10). Participants will receive entry into DEF CON on Friday, August 8 with their registration**

Name of Training: Influence Operations: Tactics, Defense, and Exploitation
Trainer(s): Greg Conti and Tom Cross
Dates: August 9-10, 2025
Time: 8:00 am to 5:00 pm PT
Venue: Las Vegas Convention Center
Cost: $2,200

Course Description: 

It is indeed all about the information. Information is power—and those who control it hold the reins. This course dives deep into the topic of Influence Operations (IO), teaching you how adversaries manipulate, deceive, and control the flow of information to achieve their objectives. From destabilizing governments to swaying elections and ruining careers, IO is a tool used by state and non-state actors alike. The question is, how do you defend against it?

In this fast-paced, hands-on course, we’ll break down how IO is planned, executed, and defended against. You’ll gain the skills and knowledge to not only recognize and counteract these operations but to protect yourself, your organization, and even your country from their impact.

What You'll Learn:

• IO Strategies & Tactics: From the basics to advanced techniques, understand how influence operations shape public opinion, corporate behavior, and political landscapes.

• Psychological Operations (PSYOP): Explore the manipulation of biases, emotions, perceptions, and actions to control outcomes.

• Deception and Counterdeception: Learn how deception campaigns are crafted, and how to spot and disrupt them.

• Military Doctrine & TTPs: Understand military frameworks for IO and adapt them for defending against threats.

• Incident Response & Defensive Tactics: Equip yourself with practical strategies for detecting and defending against IO campaigns targeting individuals and organizations.

• Crafting Messages & Understanding Propagation: Learn the art of creating and spreading messages to achieve specific goals—while also learning how to counter malicious ones.

• Real-World Case Studies: From deceptive news to social media manipulation, analyze recent IO campaigns to understand their impact and develop defensive strategies.

• Live IO Campaign Contest: Compete in a live “best IO campaign” contest, applying the techniques you’ve learned during the course to test your strategies. 

By the end of the course, you’ll not only have a deep understanding of how IO is executed, but you'll also walk away with practical tools to defend against these attacks. You’ll learn how to recognize the signs of manipulation, understand the motivations behind IO, and develop countermeasures to protect against them.

In a world where information is weaponized, knowing how to protect yourself is no longer optional. Whether you’re securing yourself, an organization, protecting a political campaign, or defending a nation, this course is your toolkit for navigating the complex and increasingly dangerous world of influence operations.

Course Outline: 

Day 1

• Survey of influence operations over time

• Influence operations fundamentals

• Psychological operations (PSYOP)

• Deception and counterdeception strategies and tactics

• Targeting

• Messaging strategies and contest prep-time

Day 2

• Creating desired effects

• Exploiting cognition and bias

• Communication channels and amplification

• IO incident response

• Offensive and defensive TTPs

• Automation in influence operations

• AI and influence operations

• IO contest and prizes awarded

Difficulty Level:

Beginner to Intermediate

Suggested Prerequisites:

All people interested in influence operations would enjoy and benefit from this class, especially those at the beginner or intermediate level. Note that this course pairs well with our Adversarial Thinking: The Art of Dangerous Ideas course offered during the other DEF CON Training session, although both courses are designed to be taken independently as well. Additionally, if you are a highly experienced influence operations practitioner looking for hands-on experience with specific tools this course may not be as appropriate.

What Students Should Bring: 

While not strictly required, a laptop and an authorized social media account (X or Mastodon are preferred) would be useful to fully participate in the influence operations contest. However, we also offer offline options to participate.

Trainer(s) Bio:

Greg Conti is a hacker, maker, and computer scientist. He is a nine-time DEF CON speaker, a seven-time Black Hat speaker, and has been a Black Hat Trainer for 10 years. He’s taught hacking and information security techniques at West Point, Stanford University bootcamps, NSA/U.S. Cyber Command, and for private clients in the financial, non-profit, and cybersecurity sectors. Greg is Co-Founder and Principal at Kopidion, a cyber security training and professional services firm. 

Formerly he served on the West Point faculty for 16 years, where he led their cybersecurity research and education programs. During his U.S. Army and Military Intelligence career he co-created U.S. Cyber Command’s Joint Advanced Cyberwarfare Course, deployed to Iraq as Officer-in-Charge of U.S. Cyber Command’s Expeditionary Cyber Support Element, and was the first Director of the Army Cyber Institute. 

Greg is co-author of On Cyber: Towards an Operational Art for Cyber Operations, and approximately 100 articles and papers covering hacking, online privacy, usable security, cyber conflict, and security visualization. Greg holds a B.S. from West Point, an M.S. from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology, all in computer science. His work may be found at gregconti.com (https://www.gregconti.com/), kopidion.com (https://www.kopidion.com/) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-conti-7a8521/).

Tom Cross is an entrepreneur and technology leader with three decades of experience in the hacker community. Tom attended the first DefCon in 1993 and he ran bulletin board systems and listservs in the early 1990’s that served the hacker community in the southeastern United States. He is currently an independent security consultant, Principal at Kopidion, and creator of FeedSeer, a news reader for Mastodon. Previously he was CoFounder and CTO of Drawbridge Networks, Director of Security Research at Lancope, and Manager of the IBM Internet Security Systems X-Force Advanced Research team. He has written papers on collateral damage in cyber conflict, vulnerability disclosure ethics, security issues in internet routers, encrypting open wireless networks, and protecting Wikipedia from vandalism. He has spoken at numerous security conferences, including Black Hat Briefings, Defcon, CyCon, HOPE, Source Boston, FIRST, and Security B-Sides. He has a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He can be found on Linkedin as https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-cross-71455/, and on Mastodon as https://ioc.exchange/@decius. 

Registration Terms and Conditions: 

Trainings are refundable before July 8, 2025, minus a non-refundable processing fee of $250.

Trainings are non-refundable after July 8, 2025.

Training tickets may be transferred. Please email us at training@defcon.org for specifics.

If a training does not reach the minimum registration requirement, it may be cancelled. In the event the training you choose is cancelled, you will be provided the option of receiving a full refund or transferring to another training (subject to availability).

Failure to attend the training without prior written notification, will be considered a no-show. No refund will be given.

By purchasing this ticket you agree to abide by the DEF CON Training Code of Conduct and the registration terms and conditions listed above.

Several breaks will be included throughout the day. Please note that food is not included.