Similar to previous Hack in the Box conferences, this year's show will also have a Lock Picking Area, where participants can get away from their computers and learn the delicate art of lock picking.

Hack in the Box doesn't have keynotes but instead runs many technical sessions featuring the latest work from some of the more famous white hat hackers and security experts.

Charlie Miller, who works for Twitter, will present his NFC (near field communications) work of late, which has focused on how software used to build the NFC protocol stack can be manipulated for unintended consequences.

For example, Miller's work shows how NFC data transmitted using Android Beam could force a mobile device to open up videos, office documents or web pages within a browser without user interaction.

The Pirate Bay's Sunde and Neij are on the agenda, but their talk hasn't been described yet. Despite years of legal wrangling and short prison sentences for Sunde, Neij and Carl Lündstrom in Sweden, the search engine is still alive to the chagrin and ire of the entertainment industry.