Hi everyone!
Long time listener, first time blogger.  First, I want to thank Cap’n Dave for inviting shoving me aboard the Black Pearl and making me a part of the Liquidmatrix band of pirates.  I am honored!
I wanted to go to Hacker Summer Camp last year, but I wasn’t sure how to make it work…since I am just a SCADA Engineer, not a pentester or infosec rockstar. Â This year, our very own James put together what I thought was going to be a shoe-in SCADA panel for Blackhat or DEF CON….and….we were wrong. Â I thought I wouldn’t be going again this year until James asked me to be a Blackhat Speaker Proctor – AKA “The James Gang”. Â I found out that I had been given 5 talks, 3 of which were SCADA talks. Â It just so happened that my wife, Shannon, was accepted as a speaker at BSidesLV and as a contestant at DEF CON Social Engineering CTF. Â So…I was going to Las Vegas for sure. Â Have SCADAs — will travel!
Blackhat
As a speaker proctor, I had to show up the day before the Blackhat briefings for our Proctor Team meeting with James, then attend the VIP party to mingle with the speakers. Â The party was great and I finally got to put some faces with names. Â I was scheduled to work the 2nd day of the Briefings. Â Being a speaker proctor is a sometimes tough job, but it was helpful that I knew several of the speakers. Â James put it best – “Speakers are special snowflakes, BH is a blizzard, Proctors are snowplows.” Â My speakers did well, so I didn’t have to plow them too bad. Â I didn’t see any other presentations, but I did get to meet a lot of smart and cool people…especially my speakers and fellow proctors.
BSidesLV
BSides is near and dear to my heart. Â I heard about BSides in late 2010 or so…and felt compelled to start BSidesJackson in Mississippi last year. Â I was excited to go to “the mothership”, but when we got there…it didn’t feel like a mothership, but more like a family. Â I was attending as my wife’s Plus One. Â I attended the 1st Day of BSides…and it was awesome to see so many people I had met before or for the first time (even though I knew a lot through twitter). Â I attended only two talks, Kati Rodzon’s and my wife’s of course – both were outstanding and gave a glimpse into the way humans work and how they are vulnerable. Â The rest of my time there was in the hallway. Â I had such a great time. Â I was expecting more people, but it felt pretty nice. Â The pool party took the cake though. Â I actually stayed till they kicked us out at 4AM…I don’t think I’ve ever been to an all-night party before. Â The conversations were amazing!
DEF CON 21
Well…I had heard many stories of DEF CON and what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised.  I expected a lot more black t-shirts and  almost no women or kids…but I was proven wrong.  There was something for everyone to do, and I wished I had more time to try it all…especially the hardware hacking village as I had been given 2 circuit boards while standing in taxi lines.  So many smart people doing very cool things.  I attended EFF The Summit with Shannon who was a VIP and mingled with all the infosec rockstars raising money for electronic freedoms.  I only saw one talk, The Fail Panel, which was a riot and it raised money for a worthy cause.  The other times I was in the hallway or at the SECTF village cheering my wife and her friends on.  The women kicked butt this year.  I was also glad I got to check Hacker Pyramid (Jack Daniel recruited Shannon to play, but they didn’t win) and Hacker Jeopardy off the list.  I did bring my Raspberry Pi + PiFace RTU with openDNP3 – an open source DNP3 stack for SCADA, but was really disappointed when I didn’t find anyone that had time for me to demo it.  I could have sworn that everybody at DEF CON was a SCADA expert hacker (tongue firmly planted in cheek).
The Community
The infosec community is strong and has many very smart and passionate people. Â I got to witness this first-hand at all 3 conferences. Â Some moments, people really pulled together to do something great as a team. Â In others, people got to see old friends and make new ones. Â Some moments felt like family with tears and joyous laughter. Â I am glad to have been welcomed into this community by not only Dave, James and Jackie, but the others as well…you know who you are…you too, Dr. Krypt3ia.
What’s next? Â Bigger and better things. Â Looking forward to getting to know y’all a bit better. Â Patrick Miller, Jack Whitsitt, and I should have lots of SCADAs for James to talk/grumble about, starting with the EnergySec Summit next month….so stay tuned.
Chris Sistrunk, PE
@chrissistrunk
Nice write-up on your Freshman take on the Vegas BH/BSidesLV/DefCon experience.
It sounds like being a SCADA professional you thought you’d be the proverbial “red-headed step child” and found yourself at 3 SCADA talks!
Maybe the SCADA panel will make the cut next year…