What is BSidesROC?
Security B-Sides Rochester, or BSidesROC, is a free and open hacker conference in Rochester, NY. It provides a place for people to learn about hacking, infosec, and all kinds of different technology in a fun environment. Maybe even zark a few CPEs in the process.
Our sixth year has another action packed event that will include presentations from industry professionals, games and challenges that exercise your hacker skills, as well as community involvement that represents the Rochester community. This year, with our partnership with RIT, we plan on also helping students and employers match up to see if we can’t turn the amateur hacker into a career plan.
BSidesROC – The Organization
Security BSidesROC is run by volunteers; people that feel the need to help create a hacker conference in Rochester so strongly that they give up weekends and free time to make it happen.
There is no single person that runs the conference, but we do have “Ops”, or operators, which are responsible for specific responsibilities. Ops are in charge of keeping track of their project’s money, managing the volunteers that help them, and coming up with awesome ways to get things done.
Mark “AntiTree” Manning: AntiTree, along with Jason, was one of the two original founders of the first hacker conference in Rochester. He works hard to build up the Rochester 2600 group of infosec enthusiasts, and brought the idea of a Hackerspace to the Rochester area. Along with BSidesROC, AntiTree hopes that these project help foster a local hacker community that can meet, learn, and hack together. By day, AntiTree is a security consultant for a large security company.
- Community Room Op
- Badges Op
- Shirts Op
- Signage Op
- Social Media Op
Jason “algorythm” Ross: along with Mark, founded Security B-Sides in Rochester. Jason has been working in security longer than he’ll admit, starting with defending network environments, then moving on to pen testing. He currently performs mobile security testing. Jason is also an avid lock picker and organizer of the Rochester TOOOL amateur lock picking group. His goals, besides running a good con, are to develop a solid hacker community in the Rochester area.
- Business and Finances Op
- Resumele Op
- Recruiting Op
Ryan “HoopyCat” Tucker: If you’ve got a problem, yo he’ll solve it, check out Hoopycat as our DJ and IT op. Ryan has been an active member in the various hackery communities including Interlock Rochester, the Rochester ham radio community, and other groups that make him the most interesting man in the Rochester hacker scene. You may have heard of Ryan’s side project, RocWiki.
- CTF Infrastructure Op
- DJ Co-Op
- Keysigning Party Op
Joe Testa: Mr. Testa is a man of many names – friends call him Cowboy Joe, or the SeCowboi. Joe has been an infosec professional for much of his career. He started out as a developer of Rapid 7’s Nexpose vulnerability scanner, where he quickly learned the ins-and-outs of network exploitation. Since then, Joe has since gone out on to own to operate his own Rochester-based security company, Positron Security.
- Audio / Video Op
Bill “JustBill” Bukowski: JustBill brings expert level knowledge in the latest enterprise technology to the group. Often referred to as the “Virtualization Adult”, JustBill is who you call after you’ve spent the day playing around with VMware products, and now would like to know the correct way to virtualize something. He has a background in Ham radio, and enjoys hacking all things RF related. He denies that he is a hacker, but if you talk to him for more than a minute you’ll see he’s wrong or just confused.
- CTF Infrastructure Op
- DJ Co-Op
David “Kahomono” Frier: David is a regular of the Rochester InfoSec community and a BSidesROC volunteer. A consultant by day, David piles in additional chaos to the already chaotic BSidesROC. (BTW: “Dave” is someone else.)
- Website Op
Thomas “G13” Richards: Thomas is a security consultant. He’s been a member of the local Rochester hacker community for years, and regularly shares his infosec knowledge at industry conferences. In his spare time, he enjoys making genetic replications with his wife.
- Hacker Store Op
Alex Page: When he’s not busy working on his PhD in Electrical Engineering at the University of Rochester, Alex is working in the hacker community to help make sure all our fun projects go off smoothly or with a bang, project depending. He’s the go-to-guy when someone asks the proper way to mix thermite as well as a resident radio expert.
- Training Day Op
- Communications Op
- Volunteer Op
Jenn Gates: Jenn is a newcomer to the hacker community and new to volunteering for BSidesROC. A true introvert, you won’t be surprised that she’s op for photographing and helping video the event. She works fulltime as a systems administrator for a local university, and currently is working to finish a graduate certificate program in Cybersecurity Engineering from the SANS Technology Institute.
- Photography & Video Op
Outlaw Drake: A contributor to the community for years, OD brings his vast experience about the hacker scene throughout the years.
- Social Media Op
Jon “jynik” Szymaniak: Jon lives for two things: punk rock and embedded systems. When he’s not developing software, debugging drivers, or staging firmware builds, you’ll likely find him kicking it to Mischief Brew while voiding the warranty on his latest toy. He is currently an embedded systems engineer at Nuand, developing and maintaining the open source software for the bladeRF software defined radio (SDR).
- CTF Op