The Monkey Badge

The Monkey badge was created by PacketChat for the HushCon West conference in December of 2023. This was the first cyber conference badge to have an FM radio receiver inside, and to use over-the-air downloading firmware at various points in the conference. The badge was modeled after the three monkeys See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Speak No Evil: represented by a monkey wearing sunglasses, a monkey wearing headphones, and a monkey wearing a mask, respectively.

The highlight of this badge was the variety of puzzles and challenges that could be completed with it during the conference. To gather clues for one of the challenges, conference attendees could attach earphones to the badge and listen for the clues hidden in a specifically tuned radio broadcast. After each challenge or puzzle was completed, the badge would download new firmware and begin another challenge. PacketChat has several other badges in the works, some of which take some inspiration from the Monkey badge.