My People Are Hackers

As I reflect on my week in Vegas for Hacker Summer Camp 2022, I had several takeaways from Christopher Krebs' engaging keynote address. One which stood out was, "Find your people", nurture those relationships, mentor, and give back when you can (I’m paraphrasing).

Well, my people are hackers. We’re good people who break stuff, build stuff, and we leave things better than we found them, (a personal family motto that I have been telling my daughters for years).

I am overwhelmed with gratitude to have been able to gather this past week with so many of my people. Some of us only met in spirit as we passed like ships in the night due to insane schedules where (guilty as charged) we tried to make up for two years of not attending in-person. Additionally, there were others that I had never met before, who have become new friends. Regardless of which “bucket” you fit in, I thank you for your relationship with me. I hope I can live up to Chris’ words, and nurture you, encourage you, be an ear for you, and give back when I can.

I have some big plans for the near future, which I cannot yet divulge, but if you too are a hacker, stay tuned because you will NOT want to miss what I'm cooking up. It won’t happen for several more weeks, so enjoy the rest of your summer, then get ready to strap yourself in, very close to your computer, because we’re gonna have some fun together, and that’s all I can say for now!

To everyone I interfaced with this past week, in one way or another, including but not limited to the following, may we be sustained by our time together, until we meet again:

Tarik Abdel, Danny Akacki, Rui Ataide, Corey J. Ball, Paul Battista, Samantha Isabelle Beaumont, Jay Bhalodia, Jaime Blasco, Chris Camacho, Mickey Cecil, Patrick Chapman, Ray Davidson, PhD, Michael Francess, Bilal Green, Jeremiah Grossman, Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, John Hammond, William Harris, Tom Hegel, Nick Hensley, CISSP, Dave Herrald, Christofer Hoff, Kyle Kephart, Sandy Lindsey, ???Alyssa Miller, Albert Mimo, Kevin Perlow, Joseph Rivela, Lynn Schifano, ?? Shelby Shum, Michael Sinno, Ed Skoudis, Jack Smith, Jennifer Sunshine Steffens, John Stoner, Joshua Sutfin, Tristin Tharp, Ted Theisen, James Turner.