{"$schema": "https://c3voc.de/schedule/schema.json", "generator": {"name": "pretalx", "version": "2026.3.0.dev0", "url": "https://pretalx.com"}, "schedule": {"url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/schedule/", "version": "0.1", "base_url": "https://pretalx.com", "conference": {"acronym": "bsides-toronto-2026", "title": "BSides Toronto 2026", "start": "2026-10-03", "end": "2026-10-04", "daysCount": 2, "timeslot_duration": "00:05", "time_zone_name": "America/Toronto", "colors": {"primary": "#82919b"}, "rooms": [{"name": "1-067", "slug": "5789-1-067", "guid": "10dc9dd3-f9c7-52fd-aa0f-51668e83e595", "description": null, "capacity": null}], "tracks": [{"name": "Saturday Talks", "slug": "7232-saturday-talks", "color": "#2218D5"}, {"name": "Sunday Talks (Off the record)", "slug": "7233-sunday-talks-off-the-record", "color": "#000000"}], "days": [{"index": 1, "date": "2026-10-03", "day_start": "2026-10-03T04:00:00-04:00", "day_end": "2026-10-04T03:59:00-04:00", "rooms": {"1-067": [{"guid": "68b8e285-a8b1-51b7-803c-1e07efdbc6be", "code": "QNA3YD", "id": 100433, "logo": null, "date": "2026-10-03T10:00:00-04:00", "start": "10:00", "end": "2026-10-03T10:25:00-04:00", "duration": "00:25", "room": "1-067", "slug": "bsides-toronto-2026-100433-the-malware-is-coming-from-inside-the-repo", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/QNA3YD/", "title": "The Malware is coming from inside the repo.", "subtitle": "", "track": null, "type": "25 Minute Talk", "language": "en", "abstract": "Thousands of commits hit public GitHub repositories every minute, and a meaningful slice of them are hostile: credential stealers, reverse shells, crypto drainers, and nation-state lures wearing the costume of a coding challenge. The same things that make GitHub great for developers (openness, trust, free hosting, a domain nobody blocks) make it excellent disposable infrastructure for attackers.\nThis talk is about what happens when you try to watch all of it. I'll walk through a pipeline that scans the public event stream in near real time, the deobfuscation engine that turns walls of XOR'd, packed, and base64'd gibberish back into something a detection rule can match, and the messy reality of keeping false positives low enough that a human analyst still trusts the queue. Then the fun part: who's actually out there, including DPRK-aligned crews running fake job interviews to backdoor developers at crypto firms. Much of the data is first triaged by an autonomous AI analyst turned loose on live adversary infrastructure from a throwaway VM.\nYou'll leave knowing how to build this visibility yourself, and why GitHub belongs in your threat model next to email and the browser.", "description": "GitHub isn't just where developers work. It's where adversaries stage, obfuscate, and deliver malicious code. Every minute, thousands of commits hit public repositories, and buried inside that firehose are credential stealers, reverse shells, crypto drainers, and the occasional nation-state lure dressed up as a coding challenge. The platform's openness, trust, and sheer volume are exactly what make it useful to attackers: free hosting, free CDN, a developer-friendly domain in every allowlist, and a culture where running npm install or cloning a stranger's repo is just Tuesday.\n\nThis talk is about what happens when you actually try to watch all of it.\n\nWe'll walk through github-threat-scanner, a pipeline that consumes the GitHub public event stream in near real time, pulls down the code behind every push, and runs it through a stack of decoders and detection rules looking for anything that smells wrong. The interesting problems aren't where you'd expect. Ingesting the stream is easy. Storing it is a solved problem. The hard parts are everything in between: peeling back the layers of obfuscation attackers use to hide payloads, deciding what \"malicious\" even means when half the internet's legitimate code looks suspicious, and keeping false positives low enough that a human analyst can still trust the queue.\n\nWe'll dig into the deobfuscation engine (CyberSaucier), a library of CyberChef recipes that chain together XOR bruteforcing, base64 and hex decoding, packed-JavaScript unwrapping, PowerShell de-munging, and the other tricks that turn a wall of gibberish back into something a detection rule can match on. You'll see which recipes earn their keep, which ones we retired because they were pure theatre, and the surprisingly mundane reasons some decoders fail in production that never show up in a blog post.\n\nThen we'll get to the fun part: who's actually out there. Commodity and Nation State actors treat GitHub Pages as disposable infrastructure. And threading through all of it are the targeted operations: DPRK-aligned clusters running fake job interviews and \"technical assessments\" that ship trojanized projects to developers at crypto firms and long-running personas that maintain plausible commit histories for months before turning hostile.\n\nYou'll leave with a concrete picture of how to build this kind of visibility yourself, what the detection surface actually looks like once you're watching it, and why GitHub deserves a seat in your threat model next to email and the browser. If you run a security team, you'll walk out with questions to take back to your developers. If you write detections, you'll have new ideas for where to point them. And if you just like watching adversaries do dumb things at scale, there will be plenty of that too.\n\n\n\nThe best part of all of this? Most of this data was initially triaged and analyzed by an autonomous AI analyst running in a throwaway VM in dangerous mode, unafraid of touching actual adversary infrastructure.\n\nNo prior knowledge of GitHub internals required. Bring opinions about regex.", "recording_license": "", "do_not_record": false, "persons": [{"code": "STCCNB", "name": "Justin Borland", "avatar": null, "biography": "A proven technical leader in the security industry, Justin started his career with a Canadian Secret clearance while still in College. After graduating, he spent the next decade building custom packet capture systems, intrusion detection systems, logging systems, and DFIR tooling for large organizations.\nJustin established and ran the Countermeasures team at Equifax.\u00a0 The team was responsible for building and maintaining the fleet of Moloch PCAP/IDS, IPS, and hundreds of other systems using petabytes of data.\u00a0 His team was also responsible for discovering the 2017 data breach.\u00a0 Justin was called into the Senate, while on paternity leave, in 2018.\nAt Barclays, Justin was part of the Global Hunt team and helped develop and mature many Threat Hunting capabilities and processes, especially related to malware analysis and DFIR.\nJustin lead both the Threat Detection & Response and IT Ops functions at Unqork, a no-code/codeless-as-a-service company.\nCurrently, Justin is the Director of Threat Engineering at Abstract, and works with the Abstract Security Threat Research Organization (ASTRO) team to develop and implement threat detection content.\nDespite always being a \"Blue Teamer\", Justin has documented CVEs in MISP and Qualys Cloud Agent, and actively contributes to open source technology, in addition to having open sourced a malware analysis platform (Phoenix).", "public_name": "Justin Borland", "guid": "2cbdacc1-3f97-5dbe-8ada-e14f1e739606", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/STCCNB/"}], "links": [], "feedback_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/QNA3YD/feedback/", "origin_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/QNA3YD/", "attachments": []}, {"guid": "76b4f249-3fb8-50b2-ac84-e9b6a5f5e37b", "code": "VVTXTZ", "id": 101457, "logo": null, "date": "2026-10-03T10:30:00-04:00", "start": "10:30", "end": "2026-10-03T10:55:00-04:00", "duration": "00:25", "room": "1-067", "slug": "bsides-toronto-2026-101457-from-schema-to-shell-the-agentic-exploitation-of-graphql-apis", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/VVTXTZ/", "title": "From Schema to Shell: The Agentic Exploitation of GraphQL APIs", "subtitle": "", "track": null, "type": "25 Minute Talk", "language": "en", "abstract": "GraphQL's flexibility creates an attack surface traditional scanners weren't built for. GrapeQL is a modular GraphQL security platform that covers the full kill chain: fingerprinting the engine, probing for injection, auth bypass, IDOR, and DoS, then handing confirmed findings to an AI agent that produces a vulnerability report along with working exploit scripta.\n\nThe platform ships as a browser-based tool. Upload or edit YAML test cases directly in the UI, point it at an endpoint, and let it run. When a finding lands, click Exploit \u2014 the agent probes the vulnerable query or mutation with tailored payloads and emits a self-contained Python script you can download and run. It will be demo this live against a deliberately vulnerable GraphQL API, covering SQLi, command injection, and DOS attacks.\n\nThe talk is honest about where agentic generation earns its keep (injection chains, auth bypass) and where it doesn't (blind OOB, complex fragment bombs). If you're securing GraphQL APIs \u2014 or building tools for people who do \u2014 this is the architecture walkthrough you want.", "description": "GraphQL breaks assumptions that traditional API scanners rely on. There's no fixed URL structure, a single endpoint accepts arbitrarily complex queries, introspection hands attackers the full schema, and batching lets them amplify requests in ways REST never allowed. Existing tools treat GraphQL as HTTP with JSON \u2014 GrapeQL treats it as its own attack surface.\n\nThe platform covers six testing phases in sequence: engine fingerprinting via behavioral probes, information disclosure (introspection leaks, field suggestions, GraphiQL exposure, alternate transports), injection across every String and ID argument in the schema, authentication and authorization (header bypass, unauthenticated access, IDOR enumeration), denial of service (deep nesting, fragment bombs), and out-of-band testing for blind vulnerabilities. Test logic lives entirely in YAML \u2014 new checks drop into the appropriate directory and load automatically, no engine changes required.", "recording_license": "", "do_not_record": false, "persons": [{"code": "QD73XY", "name": "Aleksa Zatezalo", "avatar": null, "biography": "Aleksa is a passionate security engineer, software developer, and aspiring open sorcerer. He enjoys writing and publishing software that provides elegant solutions to offensive security problems. He has contributed to multiple projects, including Metasploit. In April of 2022, Aleksa graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor\u2019s degree in computer science and a Certificate of Ethical Hacking (CEHv10). He began working as a Cloud Security consultant and hacker. He also began attending Defcon as an attendee and a volunteer for the Blue Team Village (BTV). One of Aleksa\u2019s fondest cybersecurity memories is playing the Pros Versus Joes CTF during BSides Las Vegas. By April 2024, Aleksa had obtained his OSCP and begun working as a security engineer at Praetorian. He is currently pursuing his OSCE3. He enjoys Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, running long distances, and reading in his free time. He currently holds a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The book Mastery by Robert Greene is a big inspiration for Aleksa.", "public_name": "Aleksa Zatezalo", "guid": "6531be9f-f27a-5aa7-8fdf-94c84cdf4dcf", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/QD73XY/"}], "links": [], "feedback_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/VVTXTZ/feedback/", "origin_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/VVTXTZ/", "attachments": []}, {"guid": "a7d8296b-0f20-5bbf-9c3f-69b66a0947e7", "code": "BV3ARE", "id": 100263, "logo": null, "date": "2026-10-03T11:00:00-04:00", "start": "11:00", "end": "2026-10-03T11:25:00-04:00", "duration": "00:25", "room": "1-067", "slug": "bsides-toronto-2026-100263-strictly-business-why-security-is-always-a-risk-management-function", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/BV3ARE/", "title": "Strictly Business: Why Security Is Always a Risk Management Function", "subtitle": "", "track": null, "type": "25 Minute Talk", "language": "en", "abstract": "Cybersecurity is always and everywhere a risk management function.\n\nNIST CSF, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, C2M2, ATT&CK; the frameworks and methodologies are many. Professional associations publish competing Bodies of Knowledge. Colleges and universities offer an expanding array of diplomas and degrees. Everyone has an answer to how we should do cybersecurity.\n\nBut step back and ask a simpler question: what are we actually trying to accomplish?\n\nIt's easy to lose sight of this. We get absorbed in achieving compliance, implementing the architecture du jour, or chasing the latest threat intelligence. We optimize for framework alignment rather than outcomes. We confuse the map for the territory.\n\nAuthor and practitioner Rick Howard offers a clarifying formulation: the purpose of cybersecurity is to reduce the probability of a material cyber event in the next business cycle.\n\nThis talk traces that thread across the profession. We start with risk itself, not as an abstract concept but as the fundamental tradeoff that underpins every security decision. We examine what higher education is teaching the next generation of practitioners and what the major Bodies of Knowledge say we should master. We dissect several popular frameworks, many of which explicitly call for a risk-based approach yet are routinely implemented as compliance checklists. We close by reconceptualizing the multifaceted practice that is cybersecurity through the focusing lens of risk.", "description": "**The premise.** When you ask \"is your security program working?\" the usual answers don't answer the question. \"We passed our audit.\" \"We haven't had a breach.\" \"Our maturity scores went up.\" None of these tell you whether the program is reducing the probability of a material cyber event, because none of them incorporate what the attackers are actually doing. They measure activity, posture, or compliance state. The attackers don't care.\n\n**What the talk argues.** Every security decision is, implicitly or explicitly, a risk management decision. The talk makes this concrete using Rick Howard's formulation, then picks it apart: probability (not possibility), business cycle (not all time), materiality (the threshold the business sets, not us), and risk appetite (the business decides, we inform and execute). With those four pieces in place, \"are we secure?\" stops being a not-even-wrong question and becomes a set of answerable ones.\n\n**What we cover.**\n\n- **The Problem Space:** why the usual answers to \"is your program working?\" don't survive contact with an attacker who is also acting.\n- **Rick Howard's formulation, unpacked:** probability, business cycle, materiality, risk appetite.\n- **How we're training practitioners:** a quick tour of higher education, the major Bodies of Knowledge (CISSP CBK, CISM, CRISC, et al.), and where risk management actually sits in the curriculum.\n- **Frameworks in practice:** NIST CSF, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, C2M2, ATT&CK. Most explicitly call for a risk-based approach. Most get implemented as control checklists. Why the drift happens and what to do about it.\n- **Reconceptualizing the practice:** what changes when risk is the foundation rather than an afterthought wedged into one GRC chapter.\n\n**Who this is for.** Practitioners, team leads, and managers who feel the dissonance between what they audit against and what they actually defend. People reporting to executives or boards who want to give better answers than maturity scores. Educators and mentors thinking about how to frame the discipline for newcomers. No specialized technical background required.\n\n**What attendees will leave with.**\n\n- A precise definition of what cybersecurity is for, that survives stakeholder scrutiny.\n- A vocabulary for separating activity from outcome, and posture from risk reduction.\n- A diagnostic for when a framework is helping versus when it has become the work.\n- Better questions to bring back to the business about materiality, risk appetite, and residual risk.\n\n**Style.** Synthesis talk in the tradition of Rick Howard, Bruce Schneier, and Dan Geer; opinionated, sourced, accessible. Slides are illustrative; the argument carries the talk.", "recording_license": "", "do_not_record": false, "persons": [{"code": "RKQWEH", "name": "Jason Murray", "avatar": null, "biography": "With 27 years in information security, I've recognized the need for a transformative approach that goes beyond traditional compliance-focused methods. My philosophy centers on capability-driven strategies, quantitative risk management, and the integration of diverse management principles.\n\nAs a trusted security advisor to organizations across banking & finance, insurance, municipal government, healthcare, higher education, retail, service providers, and commercial sectors, I bring extensive technical knowledge of computing and networking systems in a wide range of scales from single desktops to cloud computing to corporate environments.\n\nKey Aspects of My Approach:\n\u2022 Advocating for capability-focused methodologies like C2M2 and CMMC\n\u2022 Prioritizing quantitative risk management in security processes\n\u2022 Integrating quality management, and agile approaches into information security\n\nI believe effective information security extends beyond technology, encompassing:\n\u2022 Capability-driven security policies\n\u2022 Efficient processes aligned with organizational goals\n\u2022 Flexible security controls adaptable to changing threats\n\nI see the future of information security as:\n1. Shifting from compliance-centric to capability-driven security models\n2. Embracing quantitative risk management for informed decision-making\n3. Seamlessly integrating security capabilities into business processes\n4. Fostering a culture of continuous improvement in security practices", "public_name": "Jason Murray", "guid": "9977c0de-0448-569d-b104-92e300dd6bfd", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/RKQWEH/"}], "links": [], "feedback_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/BV3ARE/feedback/", "origin_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/BV3ARE/", "attachments": []}, {"guid": "5a47468c-1f7f-5b4c-929a-8c1894178093", "code": "YKT83Y", "id": 101318, "logo": null, "date": "2026-10-03T11:30:00-04:00", "start": "11:30", "end": "2026-10-03T11:55:00-04:00", "duration": "00:25", "room": "1-067", "slug": "bsides-toronto-2026-101318-breaking-modern-electron-apps-exploitation-patterns-defensive-lessons", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/YKT83Y/", "title": "Breaking Modern Electron Apps: Exploitation Patterns & Defensive Lessons", "subtitle": "", "track": null, "type": "25 Minute Talk", "language": "en", "abstract": "Electron has evolved significantly over the years, adopting safer defaults and introducing security mechanisms aimed at reducing the risk of application compromise. While many of the well-known \"secure by default\" issues have been addressed, modern Electron applications remain vulnerable due to insecure implementation patterns, unsafe IPC designs, dangerous preload exposure, protocol handler abuse, and misplaced trust assumptions between renderer and main processes.\n\nThis talk explores how contemporary Electron applications can still be exploited even with recommended security configurations enabled. Through hands-on demonstrations using DVEA \u2014 a purpose-built vulnerable Electron application designed for security training and research \u2014 attendees will learn how common development mistakes can transform seemingly hardened applications into viable attack surfaces.", "description": "The session will walk through multiple real-world inspired vulnerability classes, including insecure IPC communication, preload abuse, arbitrary file access, unsafe shell execution, renderer-to-main process trust boundary violations, and abuse of Electron-specific APIs. In addition to demonstrating exploitation paths, each issue will be mapped to practical defensive guidance and secure engineering recommendations that developers and security teams can apply in production environments.\n\nWhere applicable, the talk will also reference publicly disclosed real-world Electron vulnerabilities and bug bounty findings to highlight how these patterns continue to affect widely used desktop applications today.\n\nAttendees will leave with a deeper understanding of Electron's security model, common anti-patterns that lead to compromise, and actionable techniques for building and assessing secure Electron applications.", "recording_license": "", "do_not_record": false, "persons": [{"code": "XBTHKZ", "name": "Najam Ul Saqib", "avatar": null, "biography": "With five years of experience in application and cloud security, I have honed my expertise at industry leaders like Systems Ltd, Tkxel, and Constellation Software. My professional journey is rooted in a deep technical understanding of securing complex ecosystems, further sharpened by a successful track record in independent bug bounty programs.\n\nCurrently, I am the founder of Exfiltra, a specialized consultancy firm dedicated to delivering high-quality application and cloud security services. While I provide comprehensive security solutions, my primary cloud focus is Azure, helping organizations navigate and fortify their Microsoft cloud environments.\n\nDriven by a passion for the security community, I am a dedicated advocate for open-source intelligence and education. I actively contribute back by developing FOSS tools, authoring insightful blog posts, and producing educational videos. My mission is to bridge the gap between sophisticated threats and robust defense through both professional consultancy and community-driven knowledge sharing.", "public_name": "Najam Ul Saqib", "guid": "8f764966-5938-5291-8967-54798f9f58c1", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/XBTHKZ/"}], "links": [], "feedback_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/YKT83Y/feedback/", "origin_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/YKT83Y/", "attachments": []}, {"guid": "f7382bff-46d0-57c4-a1e8-3ef556b4970a", "code": "U8C8HJ", "id": 102564, "logo": null, "date": "2026-10-03T13:00:00-04:00", "start": "13:00", "end": "2026-10-03T13:25:00-04:00", "duration": "00:25", "room": "1-067", "slug": "bsides-toronto-2026-102564-one-ide-to-rule-them-all-securing-your-supply-chain-s-weakest-link", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/U8C8HJ/", "title": "One IDE to Rule Them All - Securing Your Supply Chain\u2019s Weakest Link", "subtitle": "", "track": null, "type": "25 Minute Talk", "language": "en", "abstract": "In this talk we expose how modern, browser-based IDEs (like VS Code and Cursor) have become the software supply chain's weakest link. The talk demonstrates how threat actors weaponize malicious extensions, 0-day vulnerabilities, and Chromium exploits to turn a developer's workspace into an enterprise backdoor - and delivers actionable insights for scaling IDE security.", "description": "Your API keys, business logic, database connections, sometimes even customer data and user information - might be all directly accessible from your IDE. This makes the IDE in one of the top spots for threat actors to try and break into.\n\nBecause the IDE has direct access to so much data, it makes your entire software supply chain to be as secure as a single extension, turning it to the weakest link in the chain.\n\nIt takes only one evil extension, one vulnerability or one prompt, to compromise your entire organization. We will explore how each of these attack scenarios can turn a developer\u2019s workspace into a gateway for threat actors to exfiltrate customer data before a single line of code is even written.\n\nWe\u2019ll dive deep into the IDEs architecture, starting from how IDE extensions are developed and their permissions stack, and how threat actors could manipulate extensions and IDE configurations to bypass security measures including the ability to exfiltrate valuable information from the developer\u2019s IDE, then perform lateral movement directly after infection, and their ability to stay persistent even after being removed.\nIt's not just about threat actors hacking your IDE - they will go after everything in the organization that\u2019s connected to it, and they will try to stay there as long as possible.\n\nWe\u2019ll take a look at how threat actors could leverage vulnerabilities that lie in existing IDE extensions to execute remote code & exfiltrate information - transforming a developer's local machine into an under the radar backdoor of your organization. This includes our finding of multiple 0-day vulnerabilities in popular IDE extensions, and our research of weaponizing Chromium 1-day vulnerabilities on Cursor & Windsurf.\n\nWe\u2019ll wrap up by giving the best practice recommendations for securing your IDE, avoiding evil extensions, adding company-wide policies and for approved extensions, and showing security teams how to integrate IDE security into their organization at scale.", "recording_license": "", "do_not_record": false, "persons": [{"code": "YNF8E8", "name": "Moshe Siman Tov Bustan", "avatar": null, "biography": "Moshe is a Security Research Team Lead at OX Security, a company specializing in software supply chain security. His work spans cloud security research, container security, memory forensics, and an in-depth understanding of programming languages. He also has extensive experience in mobile security, including iOS and Android research, deep analysis of Android malware, sandboxing, and memory forensics. \n\nBeyond security research, Moshe has published multiple \"Can It Run Doom?\" projects online, and is also a professional guitarist in a progressive metal band.\n\n----\n\nNir is a rocket scientist who got a bit bored so he moved to cyber. Since then as a whitehat he has managed to break dozens of mobile, web, and desktop applications. These days Nir is focused on software supply chain research and innovative attack vector research via widely-used software projects. Nir holds a B.Sc degree in physics from Tel Aviv University. He enjoys sports and learning Spanish.", "public_name": "Moshe Siman Tov Bustan", "guid": "425be2f4-d0bd-5007-abf5-bdc025d9b166", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/YNF8E8/"}, {"code": "7B3Q89", "name": "Nirza", "avatar": null, "biography": null, "public_name": "Nirza", "guid": "fe170e42-e38c-569a-9ad8-da75345b2b87", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/7B3Q89/"}], "links": [], "feedback_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/U8C8HJ/feedback/", "origin_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/U8C8HJ/", "attachments": []}, {"guid": "b6a62821-3ae7-51e1-90a3-a3dc3dab5b79", "code": "CARXCA", "id": 100725, "logo": null, "date": "2026-10-03T13:30:00-04:00", "start": "13:30", "end": "2026-10-03T13:55:00-04:00", "duration": "00:25", "room": "1-067", "slug": "bsides-toronto-2026-100725-throwing-gasoline-on-the-fire-the-causes-and-impact-of-stress-and-burnout-in-cybersecurity", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/CARXCA/", "title": "Throwing gasoline on the fire: The causes and impact of stress and burnout in cybersecurity", "subtitle": "", "track": null, "type": "25 Minute Talk", "language": "en", "abstract": "The toll that stress can take on the body and mind is real. For cybersecurity professionals in particular, due various factors, stress can  be a significant problem. In this presentation, we will look at the causes of stress and burnout in the field, discuss its impacts on individuals and on organizational security, and consider factors and actions that can reduce the risk.", "description": "This presentation will argue that cybersecurity is inherently a high-stress discipline, shaped by a unique combination of chronic understaffing, continuous exposure to high-stakes crises, and a pervasive \"always-on\" culture. Left unchecked, this environment creates a perfect storm for severe burnout, directly jeopardizing both individual well-being and organizational defense. By examining the specific occupational hazards unique to info-sec roles, such as alert fatigue and the psychological weight of zero-day vulnerabilities, this session aims to elevate systemic risk awareness. Attendees will gain a critical understanding of how chronic stress manifests in security teams and individuals, as well as learning to identify the early warning signs of systemic burnout. Ultimately, this presentation serves as a vital call to action for industry professionals to acknowledge these systemic risks and proactively implement cultural and operational safeguards.", "recording_license": "", "do_not_record": false, "persons": [{"code": "DGS3VD", "name": "George Bragg", "avatar": "https://pretalx.com/media/avatars/8ZZFUX_5XOcjyJ.webp", "biography": "George has worked in cybersecurity and related areas for 25 years. In addition to industry certifications such as CISSP, CISA, CEH, and SABSA SCF, he has a masters degree in cybersecurity from Western Governors University and is a doctoral candidate in cybersecurity at City University of Seattle, where he also works as adjunct faculty.", "public_name": "George Bragg", "guid": "439c943a-bceb-57aa-bae4-cb797a782fb6", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/DGS3VD/"}], "links": [], "feedback_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/CARXCA/feedback/", "origin_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/CARXCA/", "attachments": []}, {"guid": "bfd5651b-ee05-5813-a976-056aae05033c", "code": "AAPA89", "id": 100200, "logo": null, "date": "2026-10-03T14:00:00-04:00", "start": "14:00", "end": "2026-10-03T14:25:00-04:00", "duration": "00:25", "room": "1-067", "slug": "bsides-toronto-2026-100200-from-shell-commands-to-att-ck-building-genos-an-open-source-command-intelligence-engine", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/AAPA89/", "title": "From Shell Commands to ATT&CK: Building Genos, an Open-Source Command Intelligence Engine", "subtitle": "", "track": null, "type": "25 Minute Talk", "language": "en", "abstract": "Command-line activity is one of the clearest places where attacker behavior shows up, but interpreting it correctly is not always simple. A single command can be obviously malicious, completely benign, or only suspicious depending on context.\n\nThis talk goes over the design and development of Genos, an open-source command intelligence engine that classifies shell commands as benign, malicious, or context-dependent, while also mapping malicious behavior to MITRE ATT&CK techniques.\n\nWe will look at why command-line detection is difficult, how attackers use obfuscation and living-off-the-land binaries, and how Genos combines de-obfuscation, machine learning, and rule-based security logic to make real-time decisions. The talk will also cover lessons learned from building the system, including dataset problems, false positives, technique-mapping challenges, and the gap between a research prototype and something defenders can actually use.", "description": "This talk will walk through the process of building Genos, an open-source security research project focused on real-time command-line classification and MITRE ATT&CK mapping.\n\nThe motivation behind Genos is simple: many attacks eventually touch the command line. Whether it is PowerShell, Bash, curl, wget, certutil, rundll32, mshta, encoded payloads, reverse shells, persistence commands, credential dumping, or defense evasion, the command line often contains strong behavioral clues. However, building a system that can classify these commands reliably is much harder than just matching keywords.\n\nThe talk will cover the technical design of Genos, including a two-stage classification pipeline. The first stage acts as a gatekeeper, deciding whether a command is benign, malicious, or context-dependent. The second stage focuses on mapping malicious behavior to likely MITRE ATT&CK techniques. The system also includes a preprocessing layer that attempts to decode common forms of obfuscation such as Base64, hex strings, encoded PowerShell, and nested payloads.\n\nWe will discuss where machine learning helps, where it struggles, and why pure ML is not enough for security detection. The talk will also explain how rule-based security knowledge can be used alongside model predictions to improve practical results, especially for commands involving LOLBins, encoded payloads, suspicious download-and-execute patterns, persistence mechanisms, and privilege-related behavior.\n\nThis is not a vendor pitch or a \u201cAI solves security\u201d talk. It is a practical breakdown of what worked, what failed, and what had to be redesigned while building a usable command intelligence system. Topics include dataset construction, labeling commands with ATT&CK techniques, dealing with ambiguous commands, measuring false positives, handling context-dependent behavior, and testing the system against both benign administrative commands and attacker-style commands.\n\nA live or recorded demo will show how Genos analyzes commands, returns a verdict, assigns confidence, maps behavior to ATT&CK techniques, and explains why a command was classified a certain way.", "recording_license": "", "do_not_record": false, "persons": [{"code": "KJVP38", "name": "Ahmed Khan", "avatar": "https://pretalx.com/media/avatars/WSFAMV_RapDU4c.webp", "biography": "Ahmed Khan is a cybersecurity researcher and developer focused on threat detection, command-line behavior analysis, and applied machine learning for security. He is the creator of Genos, an open-source command intelligence engine that classifies shell commands in real time and maps suspicious behavior to MITRE ATT&CK techniques.\n\nAhmed\u2019s work combines security engineering, machine learning, and practical detection research. He has built systems for endpoint telemetry, Windows Event Log analysis, command-line classification, de-obfuscation, and ATT&CK technique mapping. He is also the first author of two accepted IEEE AIIoT 2026 papers covering command-line classification and an open-source endpoint detection and response prototype.\n\nHis current research interests include Linux threat research, behavioral detection, adversarial command analysis, endpoint security, and building practical tools that help defenders understand attacker behavior more clearly.", "public_name": "Ahmed Khan", "guid": "45fe6030-d620-5040-beff-11e2e0552759", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/KJVP38/"}], "links": [], "feedback_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/AAPA89/feedback/", "origin_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/AAPA89/", "attachments": []}, {"guid": "960588d7-4d93-5ce2-bcb6-951f3c4aa3dc", "code": "SJEYRR", "id": 100309, "logo": null, "date": "2026-10-03T15:00:00-04:00", "start": "15:00", "end": "2026-10-03T15:25:00-04:00", "duration": "00:25", "room": "1-067", "slug": "bsides-toronto-2026-100309-breaking-the-ai-assembly-line-how-attackers-exploit-llm-supply-chains", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/SJEYRR/", "title": "Breaking the AI Assembly Line: How Attackers Exploit LLM Supply Chains", "subtitle": "", "track": null, "type": "25 Minute Talk", "language": "en", "abstract": "While everyone is discussing jailbreaks and quick injection, most people are ignoring a very serious issue. Long before they respond to their first query, large language models are degraded during training, fine-tuning, and dataset preparation. And after the damage has been done, it is almost impossible to identify. I'll demonstrate how the LLM supply chain is being targeted by attackers in this session. We're talking about poisoned datasets that bypass validation checks, backdoored models that appear entirely normal until activated, and hacked training pipelines that inject vulnerabilities at scale. These attacks are not hypothetical they are already occurring, and the majority of enterprises are unaware of their vulnerability.\n\nI'll go into real world attack scenarios including split view data poisoning (where your model learns different things than you believe it does), front running attacks that corrupt datasets before they're published, and RAG poisoning tactics that affect retrieval systems. You'll witness firsthand explanations of how these assaults operate and why conventional security measures fail to detect them.\n\nIt's not all gloom and doom, though. Additionally, I'll discuss doable tactics for safeguarding your AI development lifecycle, such as evaluating model behaviour, screening datasets, and putting in place appropriate supply chain controls. Whether you're creating models internally or using third-party solutions, you must understand where the vulnerabilities are and how to guard against them.", "description": "I'll discuss the full gamut of LLM supply chain attacks, drawing on current Public Cloud Labs research and my personal field experience. The session is organized into three sections: dataset-level attacks, model-level poisoning, and RAG system compromise. I plan to provide live demonstrations of how these attacks work in practice, rather than just slides and diagrams. Attendees will see legitimate code and attack methods, and I will explain why these weaknesses are so difficult to detect with standard security tools.", "recording_license": "", "do_not_record": false, "persons": [{"code": "8EFAE7", "name": "Swar Shah", "avatar": null, "biography": "Swar Shah is a Security Consultant and Penetration Tester with over five years of specialized experience in offensive security operations. Swar holds OSCP, OSWA and CRTP certifications and has developed expertise across multiple domains including web application security, mobile platforms (Android/iOS), cloud infrastructure (AWS/Azure/GCP), Active Directory environments, and emerging technologies such as AI/LLM systems.\n\nProficient in custom exploit development and multiple programming languages including Python, C, Java, JavaScript, and SQL, Swar specializes in vulnerability assessments, source code reviews, and red team operations. His work spans SAST/DAST methodologies, API security testing (REST/SOAP/GraphQL), and reverse engineering of thick client applications.\n\nWith deep knowledge of industry frameworks including OWASP Top 10, MITRE ATT&CK, NIST, and ISO 27001 standards, Swar has proven experience in bug bounty triage and communicating complex security findings to both C-level executives and technical development teams. In his free time, Swar enjoys participating in CTF competitions, contributing to open-source security tools, and researching novel exploitation techniques.", "public_name": "Swar Shah", "guid": "df5eba2d-e6b8-55a2-9268-7715324fdf3c", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/8EFAE7/"}], "links": [], "feedback_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/SJEYRR/feedback/", "origin_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/SJEYRR/", "attachments": []}, {"guid": "8e8ae995-2607-590d-ab51-e66dd446f0ee", "code": "SH7E88", "id": 101832, "logo": "https://pretalx.com/media/bsides-toronto-2026/submissions/SH7E88/image_4Vph5DU.webp", "date": "2026-10-03T15:30:00-04:00", "start": "15:30", "end": "2026-10-03T15:55:00-04:00", "duration": "00:25", "room": "1-067", "slug": "bsides-toronto-2026-101832-poisoning-the-compliance-mind-how-i-silently-collapsed-an-ai-anti-money-laundering-system-with-50-documents", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/SH7E88/", "title": "Poisoning the Compliance Mind: How I Silently Collapsed an AI Anti-Money Laundering System with 50 Documents", "subtitle": "", "track": null, "type": "25 Minute Talk", "language": "en", "abstract": "Anti-money laundering AI agents are being deployed at scale across North American financial institutions. They read documents, assess risk, and generate suspicious activity reports \u2014 autonomously, at high speed, and with minimal human oversight.\nIn this talk I will demonstrate a new class of adversarial attack I formalised and published: the Compliance Memory Poisoning Problem. By injecting just 50 adversarially crafted documents into a RAG-based AI compliance agent's retrieval corpus through entirely legitimate data ingestion pathways, an attacker can collapse the agent's detection accuracy from 91.9% to 1.4% \u2014 a 98.4% degradation \u2014 with no anomalous signature in any operational log. The agent continues operating normally. Compliance reports keep generating. Nothing looks wrong. Everything is wrong.\nI will show exactly how this attack works, why standard cybersecurity monitoring cannot detect it, and present the Memory Hygiene Layer \u2014 a defense framework achieving 100% adversarial detection at 22.6ms response time without model retraining.\nIf your organisation deploys AI in compliance, fraud detection, or risk management \u2014 this talk is directly relevant to your attack surface.", "description": "This talk presents original published research on a previously uncharacterised adversarial attack surface in production RAG-based AI agents. Published as SSRN preprint 6734225 and being submitted to ACM ICAIF 2026 (Milan, August 2026 deadline).\nThe attack \u2014 Corpus-Level Memory Poisoning \u2014 differs fundamentally from existing adversarial ML categories. It does not target model weights, training data, or input prompts. It targets the live retrieval corpus that a deployed RAG-based agent queries at inference time. This attack surface is currently ungoverned by any existing framework including NIST AI RMF, OWASP LLM Top 10, and MITRE ATLAS.\nTalk structure \u2014 25 minutes including Q&A:\n\n3 min: Deployment reality \u2014 AI compliance agents in Canadian and global financial institutions\n5 min: The attack \u2014 how Corpus-Level Memory Poisoning works, no ML background required\n5 min: The finding \u2014 98.4% degradation, zero log anomalies, undetectable by current monitoring\n5 min: The defense \u2014 Memory Hygiene Layer, cryptographic provenance, 22.6ms detection\n4 min: Implications for Canadian financial institutions and open research questions\n3 min: Q&A\n\nAudience takeaways:\n\nA new attack vector on AI systems that current monitoring cannot detect\nA practical defense implementable without model retraining\nSpecific questions to ask AI vendors about retrieval corpus integrity\n\nNo machine learning background required. Accessible to all cybersecurity professionals. Immediately relevant to anyone in AI security, financial sector security, or compliance technology.\nSpeaker note: I am an international student arriving at Mohawk College Hamilton in September 2026. This research was conducted and published from Kenya \u2014 the first formal adversarial ML threat model targeting RAG-based financial compliance agents. I am happy to connect with sponsors or attendees working in AI security or financial sector cybersecurity.", "recording_license": "", "do_not_record": false, "persons": [{"code": "TKHYUA", "name": "Frankline Ombachi Ondieki", "avatar": null, "biography": "Frankline Ondieki Ombachi is an AI and Machine Learning Engineer from Nairobi, Kenya, and an incoming student in the Cyber Security Analytics programme at Mohawk College, Hamilton, Ontario. He has three years of production experience deploying machine learning systems at Absa Bank Kenya, Equity Bank Kenya, and the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.\nHis research \u2014 \"Poisoning the Compliance Mind: Adversarial Memory Injection Attacks on RAG-Based AML Agents\" (SSRN 6734225) \u2014 formalises the first formal threat model for adversarial attacks on RAG-based AI agents in financial compliance and introduces the Memory Hygiene Layer as a practical defense framework. The paper is being submitted to ACM ICAIF 2026 in Milan.\nFrankline was recognised as one of Africa's Top 100 Rising AI Developers (2025) by UNDP, the African Development Bank, Microsoft, and Meta.", "public_name": "Frankline Ombachi Ondieki", "guid": "9476ef3f-0e13-5de2-b625-b96b6e268887", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/TKHYUA/"}], "links": [], "feedback_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/SH7E88/feedback/", "origin_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/SH7E88/", "attachments": []}, {"guid": "00db1001-1e4d-598b-8e4c-a9c0c1542c65", "code": "BE8BJD", "id": 102569, "logo": "https://pretalx.com/media/bsides-toronto-2026/submissions/BE8BJD/image_kM6OgD4.webp", "date": "2026-10-03T16:00:00-04:00", "start": "16:00", "end": "2026-10-03T16:25:00-04:00", "duration": "00:25", "room": "1-067", "slug": "bsides-toronto-2026-102569-defending-linux-against-real-attackers", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/BE8BJD/", "title": "Defending Linux Against Real Attackers", "subtitle": "", "track": null, "type": "25 Minute Talk", "language": "en", "abstract": "Linux powers much of today's infrastructure, from cloud platforms and Kubernetes clusters to enterprise servers and home labs. While countless hardening guides and benchmark checklists exist, they often explain what to configure rather than why it matters.\n\nThis session takes a practical look at Linux security through the eyes of an attacker. We'll explore common attack paths, the defensive controls that disrupt them, and how to build multiple layers of protection using built-in Linux features and open source tools. Whether you're securing a single server or an entire fleet, you'll leave with practical techniques you can immediately apply.", "description": "Rather than approaching Linux hardening as a checklist of security settings, this presentation explains why common defensive controls exist and how they work together to disrupt real-world attack techniques.\n\nThe session follows the attacker's journey\u2014from initial access and privilege escalation to persistence and detection\u2014and demonstrates practical defensive measures that Linux administrators can implement using built-in operating system features and open source tools.\n\nAttendees will learn how to reduce the attack surface, limit privilege escalation, detect malicious activity, and automate security hardening while balancing security with operational usability. Throughout the presentation, real-world examples and demonstrations will reinforce how layered defenses make Linux systems significantly more resilient against compromise.\n\nSlide Layout\n\nUnderstanding the Threat\n- Why Linux systems are targeted\n- Common attacker objectives\n- Defense in depth\n\nReducing Initial Access\n- Patch management\n- Secure SSH configuration\n- firewalld\n\nMinimizing exposed services\n- Slowing Privilege Escalation\n- Least privilege\n- sudo configuration\n- File permissions\n- SELinux\n- systemd sand-boxing\n\nDetecting the Attacker\n- auditd\n- AIDE\n- journald\n- Centralized logging\n- Indicators of compromise\n\nRecovery and Continuous Improvement\n- Backups\n- Incident response\n- Automation with Ansible\n- Continuous hardening\n\nLessons Learned\n- Common hardening mistakes\n- Balancing security and usability\n- Building security into everyday Linux administration", "recording_license": "", "do_not_record": false, "persons": [{"code": "F37GBA", "name": "Anthony Navarro", "avatar": "https://pretalx.com/media/avatars/EBGKPB_A686HiZ.webp", "biography": "Anthony Navarro is a Linux Systems Administrator with over 15 years of experience designing, securing, and operating Linux infrastructure. His work spans enterprise Linux administration, Kubernetes, automation, PKI, observability, and open source technologies, with a focus on building secure, resilient systems.\n\nOutside of his day job, Anthony maintains an enterprise-style home lab where he explores Linux security, Kubernetes, AI, and modern infrastructure. He enjoys sharing practical, real-world techniques that attendees can immediately apply to their own environments, from home labs to production servers.\n\nAnthony is an active member of the Linux community, regularly contributes to open source projects, and speaks at technology conferences on Linux, infrastructure, and emerging technologies. He believes security is most effective when it is practical, understandable, and built into everyday system administration.", "public_name": "Anthony Navarro", "guid": "75714840-3fdc-52d4-aefd-90a1ecbb7bb5", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/F37GBA/"}], "links": [], "feedback_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/BE8BJD/feedback/", "origin_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/BE8BJD/", "attachments": []}]}}, {"index": 2, "date": "2026-10-04", "day_start": "2026-10-04T04:00:00-04:00", "day_end": "2026-10-05T03:59:00-04:00", "rooms": {"1-067": [{"guid": "4c035408-3426-5450-af25-4b780c62c802", "code": "X9TSTQ", "id": 102741, "logo": "https://pretalx.com/media/bsides-toronto-2026/submissions/X9TSTQ/image_huucSR2.webp", "date": "2026-10-04T10:00:00-04:00", "start": "10:00", "end": "2026-10-04T10:25:00-04:00", "duration": "00:25", "room": "1-067", "slug": "bsides-toronto-2026-102741-i-ve-been-rolling-around-your-house-domestic-surveillance-500", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/X9TSTQ/", "title": "I've Been Rolling Around Your House: Domestic Surveillance, $500", "subtitle": "", "track": null, "type": "25 Minute Talk", "language": "en", "abstract": "Robot vacuum. Linux on wheels. Camera, mic, floor plan of your home, all riding around on WiFi. I opened one up, tapped the UART, dumped the firmware, and followed it to the cloud. Came out with root on any of these things in the fleet from any account. Vendor knows. This is the hack.", "description": "Step one, buy a robot vacuum. Step two, take the shell off. Step three, find the UART pads and start listening.\n\nThat's how it started. A few months later I had a chain of six bugs that lets any authenticated user on the vendor's cloud push a shell command to any of their robots on earth. The on-device handler runs whatever comes down. As root. No signature check. No allowlist. Just runs.\n\nThe interesting piece isn't on the device though. It's the MQTT broker in the middle. The broker takes my \"I am device X\" claim at face value and delivers a shell payload to device Y. Which is your robot. In your living room.\n\nWalkthrough covers:\n\n* opening the thing, soldering to UART, dumping the boot log\n* finding the cloud credentials in the firmware\n* MITMing the MQTT traffic to map the topic tree\n* the moment I fired a shell command from my account at a robot owned by someone else and it just ran\n* the recon that turns \"any random robot\" into \"your robot\"\n* the actual PoC, and where the vendor's fix landed\n\nSix CVEs filed with MITRE. Vendor signed Safe Harbor. Full disclosure clears before the conference.\n\nCome if you own one of these. Come if you write firmware. Come if you like watching a $500 gadget give up everything it knows about the person who lives with it.", "recording_license": "", "do_not_record": false, "persons": [{"code": "9AQBE8", "name": "Amir H", "avatar": "https://pretalx.com/media/avatars/QSAQFH_3f00xqf.webp", "biography": "Amir is an offensive security consultant based in Toronto. He spends most weeks either breaking a client's stack or finding new ways to break IoT hardware on his own time. This talk is the second kind.\n\nOutside the day job he co-organizes DefCon Toronto (DC416) and sits on the organizing committee for TASK. Both keep him plugged into the local Toronto security community year round.\n\nHe speaks at conferences when he has something worth saying. This is one of those times.", "public_name": "Amir H", "guid": "1dff2bb5-6dae-5c76-ab69-a81e4e915df6", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/9AQBE8/"}], "links": [], "feedback_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/X9TSTQ/feedback/", "origin_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/X9TSTQ/", "attachments": []}, {"guid": "2630adfa-a104-5422-b4d3-4cbcab6ca233", "code": "KEFBRD", "id": 102794, "logo": "https://pretalx.com/media/bsides-toronto-2026/submissions/KEFBRD/image_wHhILwt.webp", "date": "2026-10-04T10:30:00-04:00", "start": "10:30", "end": "2026-10-04T10:55:00-04:00", "duration": "00:25", "room": "1-067", "slug": "bsides-toronto-2026-102794-faster-than-a-takedown-how-collective-internet-defense-disrupts-attacks-at-scale", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/KEFBRD/", "title": "Faster Than a Takedown: How Collective Internet Defense Disrupts Attacks at Scale", "subtitle": "", "track": null, "type": "25 Minute Talk", "language": "en", "abstract": "Most of us measure success one host at a time: find a malicious domain, file an abuse report, and wait days to weeks (or months) for a single domain to come down. That is a takedown. It is an essential part of mitigation, but it is slow, buying the attacker time to re-host the moment it works. Underneath it runs a faster layer most defenders never learn exists: an ecosystem of collective defense made of the internet's core infrastructure operators, such as browser and OS blocklists, public resolvers, mail reputation, and verdict aggregators, that can revoke an attacker's reach in minutes, sometimes faster than DNS propagation. I did not appreciate how much reach this layer has until I pulled the operators' own numbers. In this session I show how disruption and takedown work as two complementary layers, trace how one reported verdict propagates across the fabric of the internet, ground it in public documented cases, and show you how to tap in: point your resolvers at a public option, ingest open feeds, and report your own indicators to the community platforms built for it.", "description": "Takedown removes content permanently, but slowly, and it stalls behind bulletproof hosting, uncooperative registrars, and trademark processes that require legal intervention and run for months. Disruption is the faster layer: it stops internet traffic from reaching malicious infrastructure, often in minutes, and it can be the only protection a defender has while a takedown grinds on. This is not a talk about submitting a better takedown request. It is about the layer running underneath it: who operates it, how an IOC verdict moves through it, and how you can plug in.\n\nWhat the talk covers:\n1. One attack, two mitigations. The picture most teams carry (one report, one host, one takedown, measured in days / weeks / months, reversed if the attacker re-hosts) versus the faster response through the internet's infrastructure.\n2. The invisible infrastructure of collective defense, told through the operators' own published reach. Browser and OS blocklists (Google Safe Browsing, which warns billions of users and devices), public resolvers (Quad9, a nonprofit backed by the Global Cyber Alliance, blocking hundreds of millions of malicious lookups a day across more than 130 countries from more than twenty independent threat intelligence sources), mail reputation (Spamhaus, screening billions of mailboxes before a message lands), verdict aggregators (VirusTotal), and the endpoint engines that carry those verdicts. For on-prem and air-gapped networks, response policy zone feeds let any organization act on the same verdicts inside its own resolvers.\n3. Disruption and takedown, side by side. Speed, permanence, coverage, and requirements for each, when takedown is not available, and the resurgence problem when a domain taken down resurges in 30 to 60 days.\n4. How a verdict propagates. A trusted contributor reports a verdict, partners accept it, and the threat stops resolving across browsers, resolvers, inboxes, and endpoints at once. What governs speed and breadth, and the honest limit: coverage is the union of partner networks, not the whole internet.\n5. What it is worth, and the new KPIs. Public documented cases: standing community disruption (URLhaus), the consensus blocklists that protected healthcare during the pandemic, and a published case in which a single predicted domain reported to a public resolver blocked more than 365 million malicious hits in 30 days. The KPIs that prove it: hits prevented, mail blocked, devices warned, and victims averted, rather than domains removed.\n6. The disruptive defender's playbook. Point your resolvers at a public option such as Quad9, ingest open feeds like Spamhaus and response policy zones, and report your own indicators to community platforms built for public submission such as URLhaus. Said honestly: becoming a trusted partner to a major browser or resolver takes partner interest, extensive validation, and integration work, and in some cases is limited to dedicated cyber defense providers rather than commercial companies, so I do not sell it as a first step.\n7. Demo. I close with an anonymized real case: real timestamps and verdicts with every identifying detail replaced by placeholders, each partner's status shown through that partner's own public-facing verdict, and a victims-averted figure shown next to Quad9's own published aggregate statistics for public context.\n8. Q&A", "recording_license": "", "do_not_record": false, "persons": [{"code": "GYFYHX", "name": "Andre Piazza", "avatar": "https://pretalx.com/media/avatars/UWHGUB_MV8eEte.webp", "biography": "Andre Piazza is a cybersecurity strategist at BforeAI who works left of boom, catching adversary infrastructure during its staging window, before ransomware, account fraud, or brand and supplier impersonation reaches a target. He treats attacks as infrastructure and behavior rather than content, working from public signals like WHOIS, DNS, certificate transparency, and ASN data, and linking domains by registration velocity, shared certificate fingerprints, and hosting overlap to surface lookalike and impersonation infrastructure before it goes live. His work spans verification fraud, impersonation built with AI, scams that spin up around breaking news, and operational technology, and it gives as much weight to the human trust attackers exploit as to the technology. He turns published threat research into methods practitioners can use the next day, and he is a regular speaker at the SANS AI Cybersecurity Summit, BSides conferences including Seattle, Hou.Sec.Con, and Cybr.Hak.Con. He cares about building a more resilient community through collective defense.", "public_name": "Andre Piazza", "guid": "b731ba4c-53f1-58dc-83d1-4ca8e9a98a9b", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/GYFYHX/"}], "links": [], "feedback_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/KEFBRD/feedback/", "origin_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/KEFBRD/", "attachments": []}, {"guid": "4273d465-de50-50ef-a370-39289508ebde", "code": "VVNLB7", "id": 100367, "logo": null, "date": "2026-10-04T11:00:00-04:00", "start": "11:00", "end": "2026-10-04T11:25:00-04:00", "duration": "00:25", "room": "1-067", "slug": "bsides-toronto-2026-100367-what-to-expect-when-you-re-expecting-pentesters", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/VVNLB7/", "title": "What to Expect When You\u2019re Expecting Pentesters", "subtitle": "", "track": null, "type": "25 Minute Talk", "language": "en", "abstract": "Penetration tests often fail before testing begins: unclear scope, missing access, vague expectations, and teams that are not ready to act on the findings. This talk covers the real-world parts of pentesting that do not show up in CTFs or exploit write-ups: scoping calls, messy asset lists, delayed credentials, defensive reactions, and reports that never become remediation work. Using anonymized consulting examples, we will look at how to prepare for a pentest, stay engaged during testing, and turn findings into actual security improvement.", "description": "This talk is about how to get more value from penetration testing by understanding what happens before, during, and after the technical work.\n\nWe will cover common reasons engagements go wrong: unclear scope, confusing terminology, missing access, unrealistic expectations, poor communication, and weak remediation ownership. The goal is to help attendees understand that a good pentest is not just about finding vulnerabilities; it also depends on preparation, communication, and follow-through.\n\nSlide Layout\n- What a pentest is and is not\n   - Authorized, time-boxed testing\n   - Not a magic wand or guarantee\n   - Why scope matters\n- Why pentests fail before they start\n   - Vague requests\n   - Unclear asset inventories\n   - Confusion between apps, APIs, scans, and red teams\n   - Missing credentials or test data\n- Real scoping examples\n   - A well-prepared client\n   - A moving-scope client\n   - A client who mixed compliance, SDLC, and testing needs without a clear goal\n- Human factors\n   - Findings can feel personal\n   - Defensive reactions slow down remediation\n   - How to keep the conversation focused on impact instead of blame\n- During and after the test\n   - Kickoff and status calls\n   - Escalating high-impact findings\n   - Assigning owners\n   - Tracking remediation\n   - Looking for root causes and finding chains", "recording_license": "", "do_not_record": false, "persons": [{"code": "JQXBB7", "name": "Drew Wade", "avatar": null, "biography": "Andrew Wade is a Principal Security Consultant with NCC Group, where he leads and delivers penetration testing and cloud security engagements across application, container, Kubernetes, and cloud environments. He also leads NCC Group\u2019s Cloud Security Community of Practice and guides the global Cloud Security Practice, including service design, delivery standards, scoping improvements, and consultant enablement.\n\nAndrew\u2019s work sits at the intersection of hands-on technical testing, practice leadership, and client advisory. He focuses on helping organizations turn security testing into clearer risk understanding, better remediation decisions, and more mature security programs. Prior to cybersecurity consulting, Andrew worked in academic research and university teaching, bringing a background in anthropology, communication, and human behaviour that directly informs his perspective on why penetration testing succeeds or fails in practice.", "public_name": "Drew Wade", "guid": "b3a29c3c-2fee-550b-b0e9-e807bd48e5a7", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/JQXBB7/"}], "links": [], "feedback_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/VVNLB7/feedback/", "origin_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/VVNLB7/", "attachments": []}, {"guid": "047496c7-3681-5e0d-b741-cb7f8222fbc3", "code": "LWW93J", "id": 100391, "logo": null, "date": "2026-10-04T11:45:00-04:00", "start": "11:45", "end": "2026-10-04T12:10:00-04:00", "duration": "00:25", "room": "1-067", "slug": "bsides-toronto-2026-100391-from-cve-to-poc-dissecting-a-windows-afd-sys-heap-overflow", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/LWW93J/", "title": "From CVE to PoC: Dissecting a Windows AFD.sys Heap Overflow", "subtitle": "", "track": null, "type": "25 Minute Talk", "language": "en", "abstract": "CVE descriptions are notoriously vague. A few lines of text, a CVSS score, and you're left asking: what does this actually mean, and how does it work? Translating that into a working understanding of the underlying flaw requires a structured methodology and a willingness to dig into the internals of the target system.\nThis talk walks through the full research lifecycle of CVE-2026-21236 - a heap-based buffer overflow in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock (AFD.sys) - from a blank slate to the first publicly available analysis report. \nWe\u2019ll cover each phase of the process, including lessons that are learned along the way.\nAttendees will come away with a workflow and practical tips for turning a Windows CVE into real understanding.", "description": "The Windows CVE, labeled CVE-2026-21236, which was published on February 11, 2026, is a heap-based buffer overflow within the Windows driver: Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock or AFD.sys. The presentation will show a research workflow starting from:\n- the selection of vulnerability\n- the creation of the environment\n- the actual vulnerability analysis\n- creation of proof-concept-code\n- reporting\nEach step of the way detailing the lessons learned and how to do better. This talk will mainly focus on the often-undocumented analysis phase of exploit development, discussing how a CVE can be analyzed for a greater understanding of the vulnerability and how it could be exploited.", "recording_license": "", "do_not_record": false, "persons": [{"code": "F3Q3KF", "name": "Emily Liu", "avatar": null, "biography": "Emily Liu is a Senior Security Consultant at NCC Group with five years working in offensive security, and 8 years working in tech overall. She leads and conducts penetration testing engagements against different types of enterprises with hands-on work experience spanning from application testing to cloud to network and to physical/social engineering engagements. Emily holds the OSCP and CRTO certifications and has previously published research such as Exploring the Security & Privacy of `Canada\u2019s Digital Proof of Vaccination Programs` and `Vulnerability Analysis of CVE-2026-21236`.\nIn her spare time, she likes to volunteer and play video games.", "public_name": "Emily Liu", "guid": "a0de83b0-3867-5073-820b-f7b56eec5eb3", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/F3Q3KF/"}], "links": [], "feedback_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/LWW93J/feedback/", "origin_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/LWW93J/", "attachments": []}, {"guid": "5eca3db3-e517-518e-8bfe-73910b98b17c", "code": "V8EVGP", "id": 101576, "logo": null, "date": "2026-10-04T12:15:00-04:00", "start": "12:15", "end": "2026-10-04T12:40:00-04:00", "duration": "00:25", "room": "1-067", "slug": "bsides-toronto-2026-101576-agentic-soc-demystified-from-buzzword-to-working-pipeline", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/V8EVGP/", "title": "Agentic SOC, Demystified: From Buzzword to Working Pipeline", "subtitle": "", "track": null, "type": "25 Minute Talk", "language": "en", "abstract": "\"Agentic SOC\" is the security buzzword of the moment, and most of what you've\nheard about it is vendor marketing. This talk strips away the hype and shows you\nwhat an AI agent actually is :a brain (an LLM that reasons), tools (the actions\nit's allowed to take), and memory (the context it can retrieve) then maps those\nthree pieces directly onto components you already run. Using Splunk and a small\nlive demo, you'll watch a trigger wake an agent, design and run its own queries,\nand return a triaged result. You'll leave knowing how to build a basic agentic\ndetection-and-triage pipeline yourself, and  just as importantly where it\nbreaks and why it isn't the turnkey magic you've been sold.", "description": "Every vendor is selling an \"Agentic SOC\" right now, and the term has been\ninflated into something that sounds mystical and expensive. Most practitioners\ncan't tell where the real capability ends and the marketing begins. This talk\nfixes that by reducing the agent to its three actual parts and mapping each one\nonto SOC components the audience already owns, then proving it with a live demo\nand an honest look at where it falls apart.\n \n \nSlide Layout\n \n- What an AI agent actually is (no magic)\n        - Brain: an LLM that reasons and decides\n        - Tools: the actions it is allowed to take in the real world\n        - Memory: context and past experience it can retrieve\n \n- Mapping the agent onto a SOC you already run\n        - Collection: a SIEM gathering logs (Splunk)\n        - Trigger: the condition that decides when to wake the agent\n        - Reasoning: an LLM that designs queries and picks the search playbook\n        - Action: a tool that runs those queries and returns L1/L2 analysis\n        - Response: opening a ticket, escalating to MDR-style action by severity\n \n- Live demo: one use case, end to end (pre-built lab)\n        - A trigger fires\n        - The agent designs and runs its own Splunk queries\n        - It returns a triaged verdict\n \n- The honest part: where agentic SOCs break\n        - Indirect prompt injection via attacker-controlled log data\n        - Hallucinated or incomplete queries and false negatives\n        - Cost at real data volumes\n        - Why autonomous response should keep a human in the loop", "recording_license": "", "do_not_record": false, "persons": [{"code": "3NL3MG", "name": "AbdulMoiz Lakdawala", "avatar": "https://pretalx.com/media/avatars/8Y837D_FQn7jXV.webp", "biography": "I'm a principal consultant in the SOC advisory space, and I've spent the last 6-7 years building and running security operations\n\nfrom second-line analyst work to architecting SOAR automation to leading SOC and detection engineering programs. I've stood up SOCs from scratch (triage workflows, escalation, the boring-but-critical plumbing), built and tuned detections against MITRE ATT&CK, and spent years automating the busywork analysts hate using Python, SOAR playbooks, and custom connectors. \n\nThat automation work is what pulled me into agentic AI \u2014 because once you've wired enough response pipelines by hand, you start asking which parts an LLM could actually own.", "public_name": "AbdulMoiz Lakdawala", "guid": "a847b07f-701a-5dcc-bbf2-6a55318d198f", "url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/speaker/3NL3MG/"}], "links": [], "feedback_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/V8EVGP/feedback/", "origin_url": "https://pretalx.com/bsides-toronto-2026/talk/V8EVGP/", "attachments": []}]}}]}}}