Last year I met a some cool hackers like Glitch and MU1500. I also reconnected with a friend who I just recently found out was into it. I miss the 2600 days when a bunch of us would meet at Regents on the first Friday of the month and then meet up again for brunch in Mira Mesa where someone would give a casual talk and share info. Geo use to organize it all. John aka Achillean, who came up with shodan.io and is now super famous, use to run in our circles, and I remember him showing off his baby back then. Now he’s considered a rock star in the world of cyber security! I didn’t even think about adding him on LinkedIn before, but went ahead and tried it today. I didn’t really expect him to connect since he got so big. To my surprise, he didn’t let the fame go to his head and he connected back, bringing up our 2600 days as well and how we missed it!

Another cool hacker I met on my first Defcon is Leon aka sho_lov. When I met him he was a bachelor living in Texas and it was his first Defcon too. I had no idea he was a speaker, and later he came up with a CPT for Mr. Robot that blew up! He is married now with cute kids, but he remembers me and stays humble!

I also met Bill, founder of No Starch Press who invited me to a whiskey party with a bunch of leets, and I learned the fundamentals of how to taste whiskey. As I recall, this was after giving blood, which I don’t recommend if you are anemic which I am. I was the only woman in the room then, so different from how things are now with more women hackers showing up to the table. I feel kinda good that I was an early woman hacker pioneer even though I am not famous like these guys. I was afraid to call myself a hacker then because I didn’t feel like I was good enough. Now, I wear it with pride, and to open the door to other women so they can see they aren’t alone, and they are welcome. Representation matters.

Speaking on representation, I met Snubs from Hak5 at my first Defcon. She didn’t remember me the second and third time we met. I know she sees a lot of people, but at the same time it gives off the message that I am not worth remembering, especially if it happens more than once. One time, we all drank together and she spent most of her time speaking to Viss, barely acknowledging my presence. Well, I am an introvert and I usually just observe people so I guess I wasn’t much to talk to. When I went to purchase something at her booth after that, she pretended not to know me and had to meet me again. IMHO the fame went to her head. That’s just my experience.

I love humble hackers because this industry is full of egos, and it’s so refreshing to not have to deal with that. Unfortunately, not everyone is humble and welcoming. Some treat it like an exclusive club, and they act like gatekeepers to shut people they feel are not worthy, out. One such hacker, Viss, turned me off to the scene for a while because he was so mean and stuck up. He ended up dropping me and B as friends for no reason- or maybe it was because I brought up Shodan to him and he was surprised I even knew about it. He acted like Shodan was his baby and actually gained popularity and fame in the hacker world by giving presentations on John’s work. I was surprised he was good friends with another hacker friend of mine, whose class I audited at SDSU one time. I remember when Peter had us try to hack into his machine. I remember scanning it and finding out it ran some old version of Solaris and then I searched and found an exploit that gave me a backdoor in. I didn’t, and maybe still, don’t have much faith in my abilities so I surprise myself when things pan out unexpectedly.

Anyways, Viss would give the cold shoulder to people he thinks is not worth his time, and I guess I was one of them. I found out that he grew a reputation of being toxic to the community, so much so that someone erected a blog all about it called Evisscerated. Reading it has validated my own experience, and I realize his contempt towards me had nothing to do with me, but everything to do with him. I find the same ego to be prevalent in the field of photography as well, which he is also in. Go figure. Such a turn off. If you meet people who are curious and want to learn, don’t be a jerk and punch them down because eventually word gets out.

Be kind.