I still makes mistakes with computers (This might be the reason why I'm starting to drift towards the human side of things). I went to BSides Indy this passed weekend and had a great time catching up with old friends and making new ones. Monday I got pictures loaded and vetted onto my computer. Then Tuesday, after a not so great day, I killed my computer. My CPU looks to be toast after I smothered it in thermal paste. Yes, I do mean smothered. I got it on three sides of the first row of pins and in the CPU cradle. I'm pretty sure the thing is done.
That's okay though because it was on its last legs. It was built in 2011 (with upgrades in 2016). Instead of shopping for parts, I decided to try out a company I've heard good things. I'm over being hands on with my computer (see thermal paste). The new computer will take some time to get here. After I get my computer I'll be able to process the pictures I took at BSides Indy.
BSides Indy was wonderful. They have a new venue this year at Indiana University-Purdue University (IUPUI). It had a lot of space. In fact, people on YouTube were commenting on how people weren't showing up for talks. It was really just the angle and no one wanted to sit up front. With this in mind, I made sure people sat in seats that were in frame to make it look like my talk was the most popular.
Speaking of my talk, (slides) it went really well. It was probably my best first talk I've done so far. It was done so well that it will be the only version of that talk I give. Let me explain.
I have so much content for Social Engineering for the Blue Team, that I think I can make multiple talks on it and still not touch everything I want to touch. I think there's an opportunity here for me to have the same title and abstract and provide something different each time I present on the topic. This will be more work for me. It also means that I can work on content for ultimate goal of the idea, training and workshops.
This topic is something I'd love to give at conference as training (both paid and free). To do that I need to work out some of my ideas and present them to a crowd of people. I've gotten positive feedback for the BSides Indy talk. I am scheduled to do a remote talk for ColaSec. I've already adjusted the slides for the presentation.
After that I'm an alternate for BSides Nashville. I'll plan to have the slides worked by then as well. If they don't get re-worked then I'll present those at ShowMeCon. Before that though I have my workshop at Converge and BSides Detroit. That will have everything in it as I'm planning for an 8-hour workshop (not sure on exact length yet). I'm waiting to hear back from a couple conferences and I'm waiting for a couple more to open up.
Back to BSides Indy. It was one of my favorite events. It's very laid back. It's in a city great for families. My wife came with me and took the kids to the mall where the played blacklight putt-putt. Both my kids got hole-in-ones on the 18th hole. We checked out the kids museum the day following the conference. That place is freaking awesome. It's four levels of activities for children (and adults). I highly recommend the place.
In between pictures I sat down to help Team Butts with the CTF. I say help, but what I really mean is that I googled an ID number and found it was associated with the rick roll video. I was hoping there would be more web app stuff, alas there was none. Still Snow and Infosystir (with a shout out to Dave from Hak4kidz) carried the team to a first place victory. The two top placing teams got NetWars accounts. Those ended up going to students as the people from the top two teams didn't have as a big of a need for them.
That's what I love about the infosec community. We care about each other, the advancement of juniors, and the betterment of the community.
This blog post first appear on Exploring Information Security.