Opening Remarks (Saturday)

Hello everybody. Welcome to BSidesSF 2026, the musical. So very pleased to have all of you here today. We picked this year's theme as a play on security theater. A term term Bruce Schneier you know coined for things that feel like security but don't actually make anything better. So yeah, it's a little bit comedy, a little bit tragedy. And honestly, life's been imitating art lately. This year more than anything other we've had so many things that have just gone wrong due to various world events. We've had at least 18 different program changes since we locked it in and it's still going on. This is more than any other year. We've had presenters that just were not even able to come because

of of various things going on. So unfortunately, there have been talk cancellations or we've had to move things around. So please check the online schedule for the latest changes on thing. But yeah, it's a time of constant change and you're probably feeling in other ways too. The job market has been crazy on both sides of things. So you you're hearing that like hey, there's tons of people who are really good that are looking for jobs and they're just aren't able to get in front of the right people. And then you're also finding just that you know, there's just not enough jobs available too and it's just it it is just a mess going on right now.

So that anything that we can do as a community to help help one another. This is what BSides is about. Um So if you are job hunting, we do recommend that you stop by the career village up in the fourth floor in CityView. It's a space where you can they can help you navigate your career in security whether that's by refining your resume, building your personal brand or you just getting real practice with interviewing. So again, helping the community is what BSides is about. Uh BSides SF is 100% volunteer-run. It's built by the community, for the community, with one goal: expanding the conversation. Uh there are no attendees at BSides. Everyone is a participant. Uh so, don't

just sit back. You need to actually take take action here. This is something to do. Jump in, ask questions, share idea, start conversations. Participate. That's what makes this work. And as BSides SF is a community experience, it needs to be harassment-free. We have zero tolerance for harassment, abuse, or intimidation of any kind. These rules apply to all participants uh in any forms, whether it be uh in the physical world or the digital world. Uh speaking of physical spaces, uh you can hack the challenges, but not the venue, please. Um please don't make us take any action. Uh we will, but we don't want to. Um if at any time over the next 2 days, you

have any type of issues, please see a uh safety office uh person in a red t-shirt, or find a uh staff member like myself. We have these uh staff uh shirts. Um you can also email incident@bsidessf.org. We have people monitoring that uh 24/7, and we'll be happy to respond uh quickly. We also request that you ask before taking any photos. Uh you know, BSides SF balances the need to kind of document our community's history with the critical need for privacy first. Uh many of our attendees actually work in sensitive security roles, or just value their their anonymity. Uh we do have designated photographers. I don't know if Here we go. Here's Here's one. This is Kelsey. Uh we have a few others as

well. Um they're they're wearing vendor badges. If you see them, um and uh you know, they're taking a photo that you just let them know if you don't like to be in it. Um they're very uh very happy to to not make sure you're not in it. If for some reason you do see a photo that we do post on say social media or something in a professional in a official sense and you you want your want that removed, you can always reach out to info@besidessf.org and we'll be happy to do that. Um if you attended besides SF last year, uh the event layout should generally feel the same. Uh just like last year, we actually bought out all of AMC. Um so

we have 16 uh different theaters and the mezzanine as well and of course the lobby uh and and then all of City View upstairs as well. Uh and we're putting all of AMC to uh to use this year. We have six different tracks this year. So this is actually our first year doing kind of more proper tracks for things. We'll see how it goes. Uh and then we also have the Diana Initiative as our very first community partner. Uh and so they are hosting all of the talks and and indeed uh in theater 7 today. Uh the mission of that the Diana Initiative is to create a more inclusive uh information security industry. Uh they strive to support underrepresented

individuals uh by welcoming them and then helping them find the resources uh and communities where they can become successful in our industry. Theater 9 is our Infosec and Corpsec track. The over overflow seating for that will be in theater 8. Uh in the afternoon we're going to have theater 9 for something new. Um it is the show must go on panel. It's actually with our program operations team giving a kind of a behind the scenes look at how we run our call for presentations process, choose talks, and how you can get involved in this. And believe me, we definitely want you to get involved in this. A lot of us have been doing this a long time and we

need more help. Um theater 10 is our production uh Prodsec and Appsec track. Overflow seating for that will be in theater 11. Uh theater 12 today is our panel and podcast track. Uh this afternoon the CISO series is going to be recording a uh podcast and then we'll end the day in that theater with an Ask the EFF panel. Uh theater 13 is the DNR track. Uh and theater 14 is AI and LLMs uh with overflow seating in theater 15. We also have a couple of talks in theaters 1 through 4 across a range of a bunch of different topics including GRC, privacy, cryptography, and a few other one to kind of 101 talks as well. Um so if

you're new in security, that's a great place to start. Uh in theater 1, something also new this year, we have two sessions of Roast My Pitch. Um so we'll have people that are actually presenting their unconventional ideas and then a panel of security experts and professionals will basically give very candid feedback on those ideas. And so I'm very excited for that. Um look I think that'll be a a fun time. Uh and then also in theater 1, we'll have two different Birds of a Feather session. Uh if you've not done like a BoF before, uh it's very informal, participant-driven kind of sessions based around some type of topic to to kind of foster more discussion

about something. Uh there are many so many different opportunities for uh conversation today. Uh so again, make sure you check the full schedule online on Sched um or on the Hacker Tracker app. Uh both have the full schedule. Uh and then the annual CTF uh Capture the Flag event has already started. Uh so it started yesterday online sponsored by Hack Western this year. Still plenty of time though to join in. Um they are in uh the Twin Peaks room. So if you're up on on uh City View, if you go and take a right, uh it's the first door on your left for that. Uh no matter if you're pro at doing CTFs and have like

maybe you've you've won DEF CON CTF or something or have never done one before, you're going to have a great time. They have all kinds of of different things. Uh and we do have prizes for the uh the winners there at the end. All right, in addition to the CTF, we have nine different villages this year. Uh all the villages are upstairs this year in City View. Uh we have adversary, AI, bug bounty, uh the career village, um cloud, crypto and privacy, IoT, lock pick, uh and new this year, script kitty village. And they have these really like really awesome like uh script you know kitty uh things as well, so make sure to stop by

that one. Uh the weather outside is going to be beautiful today. I know it though especially this entire week has been really great. It thankfully has cooled down a bit cuz it's been quite brutal the last few days, but uh but definitely you can hopefully spend some time outside in the lounge. Uh the lounge this year is sponsored by Run Zero and their Yeti all the way from the Alps. So uh happy to have them helping us out. Um we know many folks are kind of uh experiencing all these kind of life changes and challenges of of all types. And so we've brought back Dr. Sarah. Uh is our on-site emotional support therapist. And so uh her email address

is up on the screen. If for some reason you you uh you didn't get it here, you can always stop by the info desk and they'll connect you with Dr. Sarah. Uh one additional layout change we did make this year though is all the community organizations are actually based on the mezzanine layer uh level. Um so that's one level uh down. Actually it's sorry, it's one level up. Um so actually if you're exiting, you'll exit directly into the mezzanine. Um and so this year in community orgs, we have EFF, ISC2, uh ISSA, um Pacific Hackers Association, uh Secure Diversity, Day of Security, Women in Cyber Security, and Women's Society of Cyber Jutsu. At registration, you should have picked

up uh two prepaid drink tickets. Uh and so again keyword there is prepaid, so please use them and they're good for both uh alcoholic and non-alcoholic. So that's always a question we get, so you know, it's don't worry that going to the bar and everything else. You could you there's plenty of non-alcoholic stuff there as well. Grab a drink, uh chill out in the bar and chill out space. Uh we also have our coffee and espresso stations uh at three different places in the in the participant hall upstairs. Uh or if you want the magic of the movies, of course this is AMC. Uh we will uh be offering popcorn and limited snacks here at AMC uh starting a little bit later

today. Lunch will be served upstairs from 12:00 to 1:30 in Embarcadero and out in the tent. One thing again we're excited to have back is our graphic recordings, aka visual notes. Uh we have our artist over here, Silent James. Um I know. Uh drawing all the talks here in IMAX this weekend. Um all of those will be put on display up in CityView uh when complete uh and we'll be publishing them on our website after the event as well. Headshots as as you were coming in through registration, I'm sure you saw that uh headshots are freely available until 5:00 p.m. both today and tomorrow in uh in the lobby. Um so, if you're updating your LinkedIn or just need a

good professional headshot, that's a great way. It's it's free, so take advantage of that. Um and then also on the mezzanine one floor up, we have both the mother's room and a prayer room that can be used for your needs. At 5:30 tonight, we have our uh happy hour sponsored by Vega. Uh so, join us in the bar and chill out space and toast to a successful first day of the event. Immediately following the happy hour will be our Saturday night party. Uh we're going to have food, drink, and some really awesome entertainment, special entertainment. I mean, you know, keeping in mind the the theme this year, so just just a heads up there. Uh and then if you need something to

wear to the party, of course we should suggest one of our fabulous event t-shirts. Um so, if you have pre-purchased a t-shirt, you should have picked it up at registration. If you didn't pick it up then, please go back to registration there. If you did not pre-purchase one, you can stop by upstairs in coat check and buy one there. Proceeds of the sales from these shirts are going to be donated to three different charities, the Diana Initiative, EFF, and Bard Theater, a non-profit theater company focused on bringing the classics to a modern-day audience through a unique lens. They're going to They strive to create opportunities for marginalized theater makers in the SF Bay Area. So, grab a t-shirt and when you're done,

give back a little feedback. We have a couple of different ways to provide feedback. There's kind of two primary ways. So, there's the QR code on the left here to provide presentation feedback. That's going to be available in all the theaters as well. You can You know, there's on the signs as well. There's that QR code. So, as you're going to a talk, you can go ahead and get that on your on your phone. We're always looking for ways to kind of improve our program and content overall, and then includes all the talks we run. So, please that's a great place to provide very specific feedback on any talk that you attend. We have a lot of

new presenters this year, and they really do appreciate the feedback. We do share that with them. And so, we'd love that to hear about the content as well. And so, please do provide that. The one on the right is more for general feedback you know, about the event. You can also It's super easy to remember besidesf.org/feedback goes directly there. We'd love to hear about with both what you enjoyed and what could be improved. Later post the event when we're doing a postmortem, we take all of your feedback and we go line by line through that, and it really helps us to understand like, okay, what are the things we may want to change for next year? What are the

things we want to keep? You know, believe me I've said this in years past, but I think we've gone through five different five or six different coffee vendors over the years until we finally found one that people seem to enjoy, but like that was constant feedback. And so we would kept trying things. And so we welcome any kind of feedback that you have to improve the overall event. Again, we we try to make the event better every year and we appreciate your help. Last but certainly not least, the event would not be possible without support from our generous sponsors. Each one of these organizations has contributed an aspect to this year's event. So I just

want to First of all, let's give a round of applause to all the sponsors.

Please make sure to check out their tables upstairs in the participant hall. At registration you should have received a sponsor passport. I know some people may not have, so you can stop by the BSides booth upstairs in the participant hall and get that. If you stop by all the the booths and get them stamped, you can enter for some awesome raffle prizes. They There's some really cool things this year. So the raffle is going to be held both today and tomorrow at 2:15 in the Embarcadero at the stage. You must be present to win. So make sure that get your your raffle card passport card filled out, drop it at the BSides booth, and then be there

at 2:15 to hopefully hear your name be called. Again, finally, a very special thank you to our six gold sponsors: Akido, Arcjet, Clover, Datadog, Socket, and Sublime Security.