Jack Daniel is a storyteller, wanderer, comic, bartender, blacksmith, luthier, historian, mechanic, and the world’s oldest millennial. He is also one of the founders of Security BSides. Jack has a colorful and interesting history, and today we’ll learn about how and why he started BSides, delve into a little hacker conference history, talk about modern hackers and cybersecurity conferences and how he’s seen them change over the years, and how hackers and their conferences are vastly different than the others.

Interview Notes

• Jack Daniel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackadaniel/ 
• BSides official site: https://bsides.org/ 
• BSides Las Vegas (part of hacker summer camp): https://bsideslv.org/ 
• InfoSecMap: https://infosecmap.com/ 
• Cult of the Dead Cow interview: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2023/08/07/cult-of-the-dead-cow/ 
• Jeff Moss interview #1: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2021/08/16/on-a-dark-tangent/ 
• Jeff Moss interview #2: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2022/08/29/the-night-the-lights-went-out-in-vegas/ 
• CackalackyCon: https://cackalackycon.org/ 

Further Info

• Send me your questions! https://fdsd.me/qna 
• Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://fdsd.me/book 
• Subscribe to the newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter 
• Become a patron! https://www.patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons 
• Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch 
• Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons 
• Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support 
• Generate secure passphrases! https://d20key.com/#/ 

Table of Contents

Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show.

• 0:01:49: Interview lingo
• 0:04:05: How did you get into the world of cybersecurity and hacking?
• 0:12:40: Why did you start BSides?
• 0:17:43: What were some of the first BSides talks like?
• 0:21:42: What are the founding principles of BSides?
• 0:28:00: What approval do you need to start a BSides conference?
• 0:34:44: How have other hacker conferences influenced BSides and vice versa?
• 0:36:53: Is there a beef between BSides and Black Hat?
• 0:38:58: What’s your connection with ShmooCon?
• 0:42:42: How have hackers and these conferences changed since the old days?
• 0:47:40: Discussion on responsible disclosure
• 0:50:39: Two different kinds of presenters
• 0:54:02: You might be a hacker if…
• 1:01:30: What’s the best way to find a local hacker conference?
• 1:06:50: BSides is about community
• 1:08:29: Interview wrap-up
• 1:11:19: Patron content
• 1:11:53: Looking ahead