Countdown To ZeroPay: Surviving Tech Layoffs | rand0h | BSides312 2026

Danny Akacki's career has run the gamut of cyber security. From hands-on-keyboard to positions in leadership, he's been on the outside looking in and the inside looking out. The horrors persist on both sides, but so does he. He'll be bringing his 15 years of infosec experience—and their accompanying battle scars—to explore not just the why behind job loss, but how to navigate its emotional and practical fallout. From the shock of that final paycheck to the long weeks and months that follow, this session will offer real talk, resilience strategies, and a much-needed reminder: when the fall is all that's left, how you fall matters a great deal. --- About rand0h: Veteran of failing upwards since 2001. Founder of DEF CON 610, showrunner of Whose Slide Is It Anyway at DEF CON, SOC Goon. rand0h is a hacker & a storyteller. He just does things. Recorded live at BSides312 2026. --- Chapters: 0:00 Audio Troubles and "Whose Slide Is It Anyway" 1:35 The Lion in Winter: "It Matters a Great Deal" 2:30 About Danny (rand0h) 3:30 This Is About What Happens When You Fall 5:00 The Soul of This Talk Is Communities Like This 5:50 Why I'm Not Afraid to Name Names 7:00 I Speak for Those Who Can't 7:50 Show of Hands: Who's Been Laid Off? 8:10 This Talk Is for the Supporters Too 8:30 Founder Death, Implosion, and a Retroactive Elimination 10:30 Layoffs vs. CEO Pay 11:40 What a Journalist Friend Told Me 12:15 We Used to Crow About Negative Unemployment 13:20 Record Revenues Now Equal Mass Layoffs 14:45 Layoffs Are a Failure of Leadership 15:30 Why Does This Keep Happening? 16:20 Three Phases: Build, Observe, Strategize 17:30 The Build Phase: Build Your Network 18:40 That's Not LinkedIn - This Is 19:15 Build Your Wins While You're Still Employed 20:40 Nobody Is Coming to Save Us 21:00 Update Your Resume Quarterly 22:10 Build a Routine 23:00 Runway: Three Months or a Year? 24:15 We Love the Guts, But Not the Guts of the Business 25:00 Questions to Ask: ARR and Runway 26:30 Does Your Leadership Team Actually Meet? 27:20 Learn the Language of the Business 28:00 Tie Your Project to a Line Item 29:10 Restructuring: Do Not Panic 30:00 Strategize: Document Everything 30:50 The Wall of Death 32:00 Explore the Green Field 32:40 The After: Remember to Breathe 34:30 The One Question: Why? 35:00 "Up in the Air" 35:40 You Are Allowed to Feel Your Feelings 36:20 It's a Jackson Pollock Painting, Not a Line 37:20 Beware the Initial Rush of Support 38:00 Recruiters and Quotas 38:30 Grace and Patience 39:40 The BurbSec Ecosystem 40:50 After the Fall, the Wins Change 42:00 Know Your Enemy: Ghost Jobs Are Real 43:10 Why Companies Post Them 43:40 The Cracking Veneer 44:50 This Is Not About You 45:30 Hackers Came First, the Industry Came Second 46:20 All You Have Left Is Yourself 48:20 "Hedges Against the Night" 48:50 The Night Quiet 50:40 Keep Your Mind Occupied 51:00 The Journal Entry 52:00 Sheer Unadulterated Panic 53:00 His Son's First Library Card 54:00 Nobody Is on Your Timetable But You 54:40 Nobody Is Coming to Save Us 55:30 Companies Die, But People Still Need to Live --- Mentioned in this talk: - "Countdown to Zero Day" by Kim Zetter - "Up in the Air" (film) - "Duma Key" by Stephen King - Obsidian - DC610 Full BSides312 2026 playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZnyzZE8j8jw