Opening Ceremonies – Kickoff from Sandy, Utah

Okay, welcome everyone. Appreciate you all coming out to Bside Salt Lake City event today. I know people are still kind of straggling in. That's great. That's [Music] great. This is the Bside Salt Lake City 2025 event where everyone is a participant. That means all of you are participants, right? And we'll talk more about what that means. How many of you this is your first Bides event? Raise a hand. Oh, wow. That's impressive. Nice. Great. Okay. I'm assuming if you didn't raise your hand that you've been to one before. So, definitely reach out, make friends, especially if you saw someone who sat next to you where it's their first event. Help them better understand what's going on here. Uh I know we've

been we've been doing it here at this venue for a number of years and I'm going to cover some introductory material here in this slide deck to hopefully help everyone get their feet wet. If you're still feeling a little bit nervous and you want to know more about Bsides and what you should be doing here at this event, after Scott speaks, we're going to have Bryson come up here immediately afterwards and speak and he's going to give you more information about how to get the most out of your day at a cyber security event like Bides. So, so, you know, if you're still kind of lost after Scott's awesome keynote, then um definitely stick around here and Bryson will

Bryson's a great speaker. he'll he'll give you more information about that too. Okay. So, we do have a discord and I will drop these slides in the Discord immediately after this uh session. If you want to join it, feel free to go besides Salt Lake City.org and click the little Discord button. If you're having any issues, uh please come out to the regge desk or or let one of us know. We're we're happy to help. Reges is a great place to get help. Uh Margie is out there and she's doing an awesome job. Uh she's kind of our lead event coordinator and planner. So um yeah, we can help get all your questions answered. I

uh want to welcome you to Bsides. What is Bsides? Is a communitydriven framework for building events for and by the cyber security community members. So really want to thank everybody in the community that's worked really hard to put on these different various aspects whether they're sessions or their workshops or their uh you know just reaching out and making people feel friendly in the hallways. You know really the community is what makes this event great and um you know if you see an area which you think could be better next year uh you know would love to help you help participate in that and help improve it. And really what's the goal is we want to

help you have conversations and kind of expand that spectrum of uh you know what you previously knew as well as the connections that you previously had. There's a lot of opportunities here at the bides event and the best way to take advantage of those is to you know collaborate to make friends. A lot of us are um you know we're not the most social people in the industry you know you might say. So, don't feel weird or awkward. Uh, or maybe do, but then it get over that and then talk to the person next to you. Um, you know, really I look at everybody at these events as participants, right? There's no passive person. Um, and uh, and the thing that

makes you a participant is these conversations, right? Getting involved in activities, talking with other people. Um, yeah, sharing what you know, uh, because each one of us have a unique perspective on life and as we get to know each other, we can kind of share that and make each other stronger. Okay, there's a lot going on at the event, so I'm going to try to guide you through a little bit of that. Um, you are currently located here in the box that's read KGMC. uh behind us and upstairs that's the MPDC um building and then across the way over here we have activities in the other building the MFC building. Uh so that's primarily where uh the event uh sessions

take place. Uh Regge is right outside the door. Uh so please if you have any questions or you need to get your badge, come out there and and they're usually very helpful. sponsors, please show the sponsors some love. Uh really the bulk of the funds for the event to run it and pay for the venue and all those come from the sponsorships from these companies. So please stop by the sponsors and talk to each one of them and get to know their them a bit better. uh to encourage you to do that. We do have some sponsor bingo cards which are available at the reg desk and there will be stamps. Each of the sponsors will

have different stamps. I believe if you collect 10 stamps or 12 stamps, someone will correct me, I'm sure. Um from one from each of the sponsors and then you get one SP stamp from like a workshop or a a community. um then you can submit that into the drawing and at the end of the day today we will draw for a winner which will win a flipper zero with the Wi-Fi board in case uh pretty cool prize. Um so you know go talk to each of the sponsors fill out your sponsor bingo card and uh you know enter to win. Really want to thank each of the sponsors. So um digert and has been a

great partner with us for a number of years and really this event wouldn't be possible without their support over many many years. So really want to thank them. Um Adobe as well has been a great partner over the years and uh helped us provide the venue and all that. So we also have invoke they focus on red teaming type engagements. So go talk to them. They're great. Uh we got socket and red hat. They're also great companies. Come out to the hall and and talk with them. We got Compunet. They provide a lot of cyber security and IT services to various companies in the region. So, make sure you come out and talk to them as well. We got Xmission.

They do a lot in the internet service provider space uh and appreciate their continual sponsorship of the event. We also got Prammify which will help you get you know your compliance certifications done faster and better and uh you know Kenny the CEO is a great guy so encourage you to go talk to them. They usually have a cool activity out there. We got Orca I saw they had some pretty cool swag like you know little Orca whales. Uh they're like a cloud security product so come come talk to them. Uh we got Redpoint Security. They're really good at application pentesting and more. So come talk to them. Cydig is a tool that helps you dive in and and diagnose container

environments and more. So, so come talk to them as well. And then we got Envir um and Snow Fencive. Uh they're also great companies. Snow Fencive has some offensive services. Um and Snow sometimes is over there. So, go talk to her. She's if you don't know, uh she's a great member of the community who uh uh runs the social engineering village at Defcon these days. So, um, yeah, and then, um, you know, I do want to, we'll talk more about Scon in a future slide, but thank their support. Um, really, uh, you know, Troy's been awesome to help us out over the years through like letting us use Scon equipment and more. Um, so, uh, yeah, really appreciate that and,

uh, get my axe on, um, for helping out with the event. So, okay. Okay. I also want to thank the working group. Um Margie, who's kind of the event coordinator. She's doing a great job. Distinct uh created the electronic badges which are super cool. Um definitely check those out. Uh and Greg is over the sponsors this year. So really want to thank them. Um that's kind of our three pillars of getting this event together. Um a lot of other people help with the badges as well. um Trent and uh Paul and more. So, you know, appreciate them helping out with that. Uh Trey and Chris did an awesome job kind of helping out with event

coordination and um and Shelby's kind of helps with some of the student coordination things. So, I appreciate everything the working group does to make the event great. Um I know there's people I probably left off this. I apologize, but uh yeah, it's really, you know, takes the community to make this event great. Uh the event is put on by a nonprofit. Uh this is the current board of the nonprofit. We will have a really short nonprofit meeting directly following the closing session today. Um so if you're interested in that, uh we usually just congregate up here at the end of the day. uh you're welcome to come talk more, but this is the current board and um yeah, that you know just

helps us kind of yeah get get things with the right motives behind it. So uh this is myself uh with way too many icons and uh I'm Bryce Coons. I'm Tweak Fox on social media. Um, I, uh, you know, I've done some stuff over the years and, uh, yeah. So, cool. It's a great, it's a great overview. All right. You're here in this red building. We're in track one. Uh, so if you're wondering where track one is, you're in it right now. Track two and three are in the other building over there. Uh so track two is kind of on the ground floor in the auditorium and then track three is upstairs kind of in the far corner. Uh

so definitely check those out. Uh check out the sessions on the website and see which ones you want to go to and then you know check out those rooms accordingly. Uh in this building upstairs we have a lot of the workshops and communities. Uh so we have the circuit assembly community. Matt and team are going to be up there. So, if you want to do some soldering, um like modifications to electronic badge or they usually got some projects. Uh come up there. Uh it's pretty it's very user friendly and Matt does such a great job of kind of uh you know showing you how to get started. Uh the keep, which is kind of like an interactive RPG where you hack

different systems and learn how to hack. um that's going to be upstairs again this year and the 801 Labs is putting that on. For those of you that don't know, we have a hacker space in downtown Salt Lake City which is basically a space where people can meet up. I think they typically meet up on Thursday nights each week and they put this event together, this community together, which is uh pretty phenomenal. My daughter who's in high school, uh she's worked on this a couple times and truly enjoys it. So definitely check that out. If you're looking to get better at interviewing, we will have some interview practice going on in uh upstairs in the FAR room in 226. So

definitely stop by there and um you know, use that to further your career. We also are going to have a resume review workshop a little bit later in the day um in 229 uh which a lot of students and individuals have found useful in the past. Uh so you know if you're looking for help there definitely stop by. We'll have you know people who are currently hiring managers kind of helping you in those uh areas. And then we do have a lockpicking room which is kind of in between those other rooms in 228. Uh you know it may not be on the map uh but uh yeah I'm letting you know. And um yeah lockpicking is always fun. Right.

Okay, over in the other building, uh, we do have the CTF. It's kind of upstairs in 223. And, um, Derek and team have done a phenomenal job. Derek, Chandler, um, Kevin, all them. So, they have a bunch of new challenges. So, even if you've done the CTF in the past and you like the CTF, I would highly encourage you to check it out this year. they've really um really upgraded it and there is prizes for CTF winners. Um so there'll be prizes for first place, second place, and third place individuals that are participating in the CTF. If you're participating as a team, that's okay. Um there is for the first place team, there's five mesh tact

kits. Uh so those are pretty cool. uh those are kind of like allow you to uh talk to each other without going over the internet. So um so yeah, definitely check that out. Um there's some other prizes too here, but uh we'll let the people who win kind of choose what they want and then go down the stack. So uh feel free to jump in the Discord. they'd have a CTF channel where they can answer more questions or go over to the CTF room in the other building and they'll be help happy to help you get your questions answered. Uh there will be a participant raffle. So, if you come to the closing ceremonies, uh you need to check in um at the regge

desk to be a be in the prize pool for the raffle, but there's $20 gift cards for no starch press. So, we got at least five of them and we have a bunch of other prizes. So, we're just going to give away anything we have uh any of the prizes we got left over at this raffle. Um so, you just need to check in and be here at closing ceremonies for that. There's also a code for anyone who wants to use it um for 30% off of No Starch books. No starch is some great technical books. Um and so the code is there at the bottom of this slide. Uh

BSSLC25. Uh we will have a social media contest last year uh again this year. Uh last year we had a lot of great submissions. Two people submitted tweets. So, so I'm just gonna say if you enter in this contest and we have results like last year, you have a high chance of winning. So, uh there will be an MVP. Uh we're just going to look around at the event, see who's going above and beyond, and we got a prize for that person. Uh contest rules, you got to be here at 4 PM in this room physically. uh later today and you have to be present to win. Uh yeah. So be here. You want more information about

what's going on, come over to the website. The website uh it works okay on the cell phones, but sometimes if you go to this event schedule portal link, uh you can kind of get to the sessionize view uh which is more like an app view for the schedule. And that typically works a little bit better on your cell phone. Uh, so I just wanted to call that out uh to help you with navigating that on your cell phones. Uh, we don't we don't provide lunch, but there is some great options that are really close by. We're really close to the mall. Um, the shops at Southtown. Uh, there's a Slackwater Pizza, which is awesome pizza place.

JCWs, Five Guys, and more. Um, so yeah. So, um, you know, feel free to step out whenever you're hungry and come back before 4 pm. All right. I wanted to talk a little bit about other events in Utah. I know I'm probably going to miss some of them, but uh um first off, I want to say in May, it's not on this slide, but there's a great event called Hacker Camp. Uh if you go to hackeramp.org, you can check that out. that's essentially a bunch of hackers that go camping. It's about two hours south of here. Uh so it's pretty accessible and there's going to be a lot of like cool uh CTF things you can do on

that event that you don't really need a laptop to complete. Um yeah, so definitely check that out. And uh some of the members of the DC 801 are kind of working on that. So Hacker Camp, that's like May 16thish. So coming up soon. Okay. Next, we will have a Bsides event up at uh in Logan uh called Bides Cash. Um we had pretty good turnout last year. Um like uh maybe 175 people. Uh I think we'll we'll have much more this year up there. So uh definitely come check that out. We had some awesome activities and that's going to be in the fall September time frame. I want to do a plug for Saint Con. They do an awesome

job each year and so if you like this uh Scon is about 2,000 people so it's a bigger event and um it's definitely worth getting your tickets before they sell out uh because they will sell out. And then we'll have a Bides Red Rocks conference. Uh that's just going to be a Bides conference down in southern Utah. Typically we have about a hundred people down there for that. Uh so it's kind of a smaller event but it's a lot of fun. And then uh we do have a AI focused conference in Park City. Uh that'll be in next year in the ski season in February. So if you're interested in AI or things like that, that's another

great event, the OPAR event. Um so just want to reiterate hacker camp coming up in May as well as the CFP for Bites cache opened up today. So, you know, if you're seeing someone speak today and you're like, I could definitely do that. This is your opportunity. But for reals, we we'd really like to get some great speakers up there in Logan. Um, so please submit the CFP and um we had some awesome speakers last year like we had Grifter um who's on the you know um the Black Hat board and and other great people. And we got a great keynote this year. Is it Mike Spicer? Mike Spicer. Okay, great. Yeah, he's coming out and he's

always he's always a great he's always a great speaker. So So be there. All right. Conclusion. What are you doing here? You're trying to make connections, right? So talk to people. You're trying to build up the community. So help each other out, right? and you're trying to as we kind of build that community and we build those connections, a kind of side effect of that is we're going to be able to help each other in our careers. Either get into cyber security careers or get ahead in our careers. Um, so that's kind of like an added benefit. So those are kind of the three C's of a B-side event. Uh, I hope you can take that to heart and

implement that throughout the day. Once again, huge thank you to the sponsors. I I'm gonna turn it over to Scott to do the keynote now. Scott, amazing guy, right? Super smart. Uh has some awesome blog posts that each one of you should go check out. Cloud security expert, right? Scott Piper. So, um I'm going to let him come up here and set up the laptop. Honestly, this guy is super super smart. So, you should stick around if you're interested. Right after Scott, we'll have Bryson come up and he'll do more getting acquainted with the con. Thank you all for coming out. I'll turn over to Scott now. Thank you.