WASHINGTON, D.C. - In case you haven't heard of it, ShmooCon is an alternative east coast hacker convention located in Washington, DC. It is one of the premier hacking and security conferences and a destination event for IT security professionals.

The opening remarks for ShmooCon were given by Bruce Potter, one of the founders of The Shmoo Group (a non-profit security think tank that hosts ShmooCon) and security geek. In his remarks, Potter commented on the state of the information security industry.

"This year information security really turned the corner. This domain has changed so much in the last twenty years. It isn't computer security, it isn't infosec anymore. It's transcended information security as we know it as a term, it's transcended computer security as we know it as a term." "When you say "security" people say, 'oh you work at ADT?' So we can’t say that. You know what everyone in the country knows when you use the term what you do? Cyber security."

Potter went on to discuss that the attention the information security industry was getting meant more money was at stake. He also talked about how this new reality affects the hacker community.

"This is the reality. This is a multi-disciplined domain that we live in now. It is an above-the-fold problem that the president talks about. That every magazine and newspaper talks about. Every CIO and CEO and executive and the board of directors talks about this problem."

For a full recording of Potter's remarks and for a live stream of the conference, see this page.