Black Hat USA 2022: Exclusive Conversations with Inspiring Guests
Alissa Knight and Mel Knight
Partner, Knight Group
Alissa Valentina Knight is an American author, film director, and producer. Knight is best known for coining the term “adversarial content,” characterized by Ramni Malek, the stylistic technical accuracy in her cybercrime genre films, and her cinematography, which is heavily influenced by her early days as a computer hacker. Some of the short films she is best known for include Ransom (2022), Scorched Earth (2022), and Underdog Games (2021). Knight became a published author in 2019 with the release of her bestselling book Hacking Connected Cars (Wiley, 2019).
Prior to her career as a film director and producer, Knight was a reformed Black Hat hacker turned content creator, business mogul, and media personality synonymous with car and API hacking. Following her arrest at 17 for hacking a government network, Knight was recruited by the U.S. intelligence community where she supported counterinsurgency (COIN) operations as a defense contractor.
Mel is a recovering CISO and cybersecurity executive of 20 years. Her career in cybersecurity has predominantly been focused in security operations. Mel’s career highlights include building the first Security Operations Center (SOC) on the Las Vegas strip for Sands Corporation as its global head of security operations. She went on to build up and staff additional SOCs for Sands Corporation in Macau and Singapore.
Before joining Brier & Thorn as its new CISO, Mel managed security services for Herjavec Group, reporting directly to CEO and Shark Tank investor Robert Herjavec, managing 170 people across functional business units.
Today, Mel manages global security operations as the CISO for Brier & Thorn, a member of the Knight Group franchise of companies alongside Knight Events, Knight Studios, Knight Capital, Knight Ink and Knight Publishing. She balances her role as a CISO and the executive producer for all films at Knight Studios. Visit Mel’s IMDB profile and learn more about the films she’s produced, including Ransom, Catastrophe, Inc., Underdog Games, HEAT, and Scorched Earth.
10:00 AM - 10:45 AM (PDT)
Marshall Heilman
EVP and CTO @ Mandiant
As an Executive VP and Global CTO, Marshall Heilman utilizes more than two decades of cybersecurity experience in executive leadership and practitioner roles to drive technical strategy and build advanced technical teams for the company. Marshall has worked at Mandiant for almost 16 years. Prior to Mandiant, Marshall was a United States Marine.
11:00 AM - 11:45 AM (PDT)
Katie Hanahan and Richard Rushing
VP, Cybersecurity Strategy @ ITSavvy
CISO @ Motorola Mobility
Katie Hanahan is the Vice President of Cybersecurity Strategy at ITsavvy and serves as the strategy lead for cybersecurity across the organization. She is also a client advocate, building a vital foundation of trust between the client, the company she serves, and technology solutions partners. Hanahan applies her years of global experience in various settings and cultures to establish a holistic culture of trust in cybersecurity practice.
Hanahan has over 15 years of experience in cybersecurity practices and technologies, both as a provider and as a client, in both public and private sectors. Now, she has built and leads a vCISO program with a dedicated team to further advance the scope of ITsavvy’s cybersecurity practice. Hanahan is a regular moderator on several social media platforms and is known for leading productive discussions around diversity, equity and inclusion.
Richard Rushing is the Chief Information Security Officer for Motorola Mobility where he leads the global security team responsible for tackling the emerging threats of mobile devices, targeted attacks, and cyber-crime.
With over 30 years of ground-up success in information security, Richard has led world-class security organizations by building and implementing custom methodologies and frameworks that balance information protection, business agility, innovation, and risk. He is a business and technology visionary with executive and hands-on experience in automating and managing multi-billion dollar enterprises including a strong record of success in deploying robust and flexible IT security architecture and infrastructure.
Prior to Motorola Mobility, Richard served as Chief Security Officer at Motorola Air Defense. Previously, he founded and served as Vice President of Technical Services and Chief Security Officer at LOCH Technologies, a global leader of next-generation wireless threat monitoring. In addition, he founded and served as Chief Technical Officer at SecureIT, a Security Services company, and held various senior security positions at VeriSign, GE Capital, and Siemens Energy & Automation. Richard is an alumnus of Arizona State University. He participates in several corporate, community, private, and government security councils to set standards, policies, and solutions for current and emerging security issues.
12:00 PM - 12:45 PM (PDT)
Lunch Break
Take a break, grab some lunch, and see you in an hour!
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (PT)
Vandana Verma
Security Relations Leader @ Snyk
Vandana is a Security Solutions Architect at Snyk. She is a Chair of the OWASP Global Board of Directors. She leads diversity initiatives like InfosecGirls and WoSec. She is also the founder of InfosecKids. She has experience ranging from application security to infrastructure and now with product security. She has been Keynote speaker/Speaker/Trainer at various public events, including Global OWASP AppSec events, to Black Hat events, to regional events, like BSides events in India.
Vandana is a member of the Black Hat Asia Review Board as well as multiple other conferences including Grace Hopper India, OWASP AppSec USA to name a few. She is also one of the organiser of BSides Delhi.
She has been the recipient of multiple prestigious awards, like Cyber Security Woman of the Year Award 2020 by Cyber Sec Awards, Application Security Influencer 2020 by Whitesource, Global cybersecurity influencer among IFSEC Global's "Top Influencers in Security and Fire" Category for 2019, and Cybersecurity Women of the year award by Women Cyberjutsu Society in the Category “Secure Coder”. She has also been listed as one of the top women leaders in this field of technology and cybersecurity in India by Instasafe. She has trained over 10,000+ diverse candidates in cybersecurity.
2:00 PM - 2:45 PM (PDT)
Jason Haddix
Head of Security and Risk Management @ Ubisoft
Jason is the Head of Security for a leading videogame company. Previously he was VP of Trust and Security at Bugcrowd and currently holds the 51st all-time ranked researcher position. Before that, Jason had a distinguished 10-year career as a penetration tester and was Director of Penetration Testing for HP.
He is a hacker and bug hunter through and through, and currently specializes in recon and web application analysis. He has also held positions doing mobile penetration testing, network/infrastructure security assessments, and static analysis.
Jason lives in Colorado with his wife and three children. Jason has presented all over the world teaching ethical hacking, including speaking and keynotes at conferences such as DEFCON, BlackHat, RSA, Rootcon, NullCon, B-sides, SANS, IANS, and more.
3:00 PM - 3: 45 PM (PDT)
Perry Carpenter
Chief Evangelist and Strategy Officer @ KnowBe4
Perry Carpenter is the author of two books, "Transformational Security Awareness: What Neuroscientists, Storytellers, and Marketers Can Teach Us About Driving Secure Behaviors" and "The Security Culture Playbook: An Executive Guide To Reducing Risk and Developing Your Human Defense Layer." He's also the creator and host of the "8th Layer Insights" podcast and currently serves as Chief Evangelist and Strategy Officer for KnowBe4, the world's most popular security awareness and simulated phishing platform.
Previously, Perry led security awareness, security culture management, and anti-phishing behavior management research at Gartner Research, in addition to covering areas of IAM strategy, CISO Program Management mentoring, and Technology Service Provider success strategies. With a long career as a security professional and researcher, Mr. Carpenter has broad experience in North America and Europe, providing security consulting and advisory services for many of the best-known global brands.
Perry holds a Master of Science in Information Assurance (MSIA) from Norwich University in Vermont and is a Certified Chief Information Security Officer (C|CISO).
10:00 AM - 10:45 AM (PDT)
Phillip Wylie
Manager, Tech Evangelism and Enablement @ CyCognito
Phillip Wylie is a cybersecurity professional and offensive security SME with over 18 years of experience, over half of his career in offensive security. Wylie is the Tech Evangelism and Enablement Manager at CyCognito. He is a former college adjunct instructor and published author. He is the concept creator and co-author of The Pentester Blueprint: Starting a Career as an Ethical Hacker and was featured in the Tribe of Hackers: Red Team.
11:00 AM - 11:45 AM (PDT)
Kyle O'Meara
Principal Adversary Hunter II @ Dragos
Kyle O'Meara is a Principal Adversary Hunter at Dragos. Before coming to Dragos, Kyle was a senior member of the Technical Staff at the Software Engineering Institute CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC), where he led threat analysis engagements for government partners. His other past jobs include technical roles at FireEye, Stroz Friedberg, and the National Security Agency. He has developed and taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Carnegie Mellon University and Duquesne University. He has his Masters of Science in Information Security Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Kyle trains Jiu Jitsu, loves skiing, and has a collection of sneakers and beer glassware.
12:00 PM - 12:45 PM (PDT)
Lunch Break
Take a break, grab some lunch, and see you in an hour!
2:00 PM - 2:45 PM (PDT)
Anne Marie Zettlemoyer
CSO @ CyCognito
Anne Marie Zettlemoyer is a cyber strategist with over 20 years of experience in eight industries. Sitting at the intersection of business, security, and analytics, Anne Marie has served as a trusted advisor for Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, law enforcement, security vendors, and think tanks. She is a Vice President of Security Engineering and Divisional Security Officer at Mastercard, a member of the Board of Directors for SSH Security, a visiting National Security Institute Fellow at GMU’s Scalia Law School, and has held a number of strategic and technical security leadership roles including the Head of Security Architecture, Engineering, and Solutions at Freddie Mac, Director of the Cyber Think Tank at Capital One, Director of Business Analytics at FireEye, and Special Advisor for the Director of the US Secret Service.
In addition to CISSP and CeH certifications, Anne Marie holds an MBA from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor as well as undergraduate degrees in both Accounting and Finance.
2:00 PM - 2:45 PM (PDT)
Chris Cochran and Ron Eddings
Co-founders @ Hacker Valley Media
Creative Directors @ Axonius
Chris Cochran is the Creative Director of Media at Axonius by day and producer/ host of the award-winning Hacker Valley Studio podcast by night. Chris is prior active duty US Marine Corps intelligence, which led him to a career in cybersecurity. He has dedicated that career to building and leading advanced cybersecurity missions at organizations such as the National Security Agency, US Cyber Command, Mandiant, and Netflix. His ultimate passion is finding and amplifying human stories in cybersecurity to inspire and enlighten our community.
Ronald Eddings, Co-Founder and Executive Producer at Hacker Valley Media, is an Austin, TX based cybersecurity expert and podcaster whose ingenuity, dedication, and ambition have earned him a reputation as a trusted industry leader. While podcasting on the Hacker Valley Studio podcast, Ron explores the human condition to inspire peak performance in cybersecurity. Over the course of his career, he has garnered experience, working at various fortune 500 companies and mentoring a multitude of fellow professionals along the way.