Three coins, two weeks, one story.
How a run of Virginia security conferences turned into a small pile of challenge coins, and why, in the end, the bling was never really the point.
So how does a two-week run of Virginia conferences turn into a pile of challenge coins, and what does it actually say about the shop?
#It started at BSides Roanoke
Action Guard's Sam Williams turned up at BSides Roanoke for the first time, caught some fantastic talks, and traded notes with genuinely impressive hackers, the kind of conversations that recalibrate what you think is possible.
The ad-hoc CTF team we ran with also placed 2nd at BSides Roanoke. It was a fun competition full of imaginative challenges, the sort that reward lateral thinking over brute force.
#Then RVAsec 15, in Richmond
The next week took us to RVAsec 15 in Richmond, also a first. On the floor: novel red-team techniques, shop talk with talented researchers, and…
…win first place in the RVAsec 15 CTF with another amazing team. Two conferences, two podium finishes, two weeks apart.
Sam is also on the Action Guard schedule at the Virginia Cybersecurity Education Conference next month. More on that soon.
#What it actually meant
Thanks to everyone we got to connect and reconnect with across the community over those two weeks. That's the part that stuck.
In the end, the bling isn't the point.
The people are.
More to come on Action Guard, Cyb3r Club, and ongoing research. But for now? Back to hacking.