Hackers Summer Camp Pros & Cons

Written By The S!r3n

What I love about cybersecurity is its diversity—not only by race or gender but also by interest. I had the opportunity to attend BlackHat, speak at SquadCon, and learn at 0x0G 2024.

Here are some PROs and CONs I gathered during my week at Hackers Summer Camp, where I had the chance to learn, network, and be inspired.

PROs:

  • Learning

    • Security Blue Team did an amazing presentation on the use of their eLearning platform.

    • O’Reilly books showed some of their learning material and now have an AI chatbot portion that guides the user to training based on the responses.

    • The list goes on.

  • Advancements such as integrations with AI.

  • Strength in Numbers!

    • Women in Cyber

    • Minorities in Cyber

    • Underrepresented

    • Interests(Hacking, Incident Response, Engineering, Analyst...etc)

  • Speaking

    • I had the oppurtunity to share my story at SquadCon. Looking forward to speaking again.



  • SquadCon

    • The first day, game night was SO much fun, allowing everyone to be themselves and laugh.

    • Recruitment Opportunities

    • In the second-day keynote, Rachel Tobac shared her hacking skills(with consent, of course)

  • 0x0G 2024

    • My highlights were listening in on concepts about threat actors and learning how Chrome finds and fixes its security bugs.

    • I met some of the employees at Google who did a great job presenting and setting up the event.

  • SWAG!

    • I advise having extra luggage or shipping it home because you will have so much of it.

    • It was worth the extra 9 pounds in my suitcase...

  • Spending time with Friends.

 

CONs:

  • HEAT!

    • I thought I was prepared, but I sure wasn’t. It was a scorching 115 degrees. Would I do it again? Of course, but I need to be better prepared.

  • VENDORS at BlackHat!

    • These are not all vendors; most offered phenomenal service and were very knowledgeable about their products.

    •   For those I came across, please cater to ALL walks of life, no matter how they look. Other women and I experienced instances where we were overlooked at booths. We were there like everyone else and EARNED our spots. When you overlook or treat someone differently, it looks terrible on the brand. Remember, your competition is at the convention. Just because the person's title does not state CISO or senior executive does not mean they do not play a part in the integration or use of your product.

    • End of Rant.

The S!r3n