BSides Atlanta 2026

Akansha Kesharwani is a Security Engineer with nearly six years of experience helping organizations build secure software. Her work spans application security, penetration testing, vulnerability management, secure design reviews, and AI security, with a growing focus on securing agentic AI systems.

She enjoys breaking down complex security concepts into practical techniques that engineers can apply in their day-to-day work. Her current research explores threat modeling for AI agents, secure AI development, and how traditional AppSec practices can evolve to address emerging AI architectures.

Outside of her professional work, Akansha actively contributes to the security community through technical writing, mentoring, and creating educational content focused on application and AI security.

Experienced IT professional with a specialty in physical access control and IoT device surveillance. Broke into information technology after obtaining CompTia certs in 2021. Currently, working with ACG Security Solutions and obtaining more CompTia certifications.

Avinash Attluri is a Senior Cyber Analyst specializing in Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) at At-Bay. With extensive experience guiding organizations through high-stakes security crises—ranging from complex ransomware containment to cloud environment exploitation—he focuses on reconstructing attacker timelines and bringing technical clarity to complex breaches.

Prior to his current role, Avinash served as a Technical Lead and Senior Consultant at firms including CyXcel and Stroz Friedberg. He holds an alumnus status from Georgia State University and carries multiple advanced industry credentials, including GIAC certifications (GCFE, GCFA, GREM). His current research focuses on the intersection of AI Security, Cloud Threat Modeling, advanced forensic telemetry, and leveraging AI and automation to empower modern enterprise defenders.

Brayden Arnold is an Application Security Analyst at a Fortune 100 company, where he helps identify, validate, and remediate security findings across the software development lifecycle, translating technical vulnerabilities into risk decisions alongside engineering and development teams. He holds a Master's in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance along with certifications spanning offensive security, GRC, and threat intelligence, and recently earned his first published, high-severity CVE through independent vulnerability research. He continues to build his expertise in application security, penetration testing, and secure development practices, with a growing interest in how AI is reshaping both how practitioners learn and how the threat landscape itself evolves.

Brooke Roenitz has a background spanning implementation consulting, project management, crisis communications, and business resilience. She previously worked at CrowdStrike, holds an MBA from Georgia Tech, an MS in Logistics and Supply Chain Management, and is currently building Kestrail, a live reasoning workspace for incident teams.

Risk and intelligence professional, Navy veteran, and Georgia Tech M.S. Cybersecurity graduate with experience in open-source intelligence (OSINT) investigations, fraud detection, blockchain analysis, and compliance-driven security operations. Human-centered approach focused on protecting vulnerable communities and disrupting criminal networks, motivated by my personal faith.

Charles Wallace is a Senior FastTrack Architect at Microsoft, focused on healthcare and life sciences. He helps Tier 1 health systems and global pharma deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot and AI agents safely, building the security, identity, and governance foundation that production AI requires. Before Microsoft, he spent two decades in enterprise architecture and identity at massive scale, including large-scale Active Directory consolidations and global migrations. He holds CompTIA Security+, ISC2 CC, and CSA CCSK and CCZT, and is finishing a Cybersecurity degree at Kennesaw State University. He writes regularly about healthcare AI, security, and governance.

Steve "crudd" Rudd is a Senior Lead Information Security Engineer at Lumen Technologies
responsible for reverse engineering malware samples across a wide variety of architectures and
operating systems from a broad range of threats, including cybercriminals, ransomware
operators and APTs. A self-taught practitioner, Steve is passionate about understanding how
things work and digging into low-level assembly, operating system internals and network
protocols. He is rumored to have been used by EA sports as the character for their 1987
skateboarding game for the Commodore 64. Uncredited, of course.

Daniel is a dedicated and passionate Security Consultant at Abricto Security, where he specializes in tool creation and internal network penetration testing. His technical expertise allows him to design innovative solutions to complex security challenges, helping organizations strengthen their defenses. Beyond his professional work, Daniel actively participates in Capture the Flag competitions, continuously honing his skills and staying at the forefront of cybersecurity developments. In his free time, he enjoys developing open-source tools aimed at improving penetration testing methodologies. Daniel’s work reflects his passion for innovation and knowledge-sharing, as he strives to make a meaningful impact on the cybersecurity community while helping others enhance their skills and approaches in the field. Daniel received his Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity from the University of North Georgia where he worked as an executive member for the UNG Cybersecurity club the Cyberhawks. He holds a variety of industry certifications, including Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), GIAC Security Essentials (GSEC), eLearnSecurity Web Application Penetration Tester (eWPT), Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP), and OffSec Wireless Professional (OSWP).

$whoami: My name is Dan. I am an Offensive Security Engineer at an IT-MSP that operates in the Financial Services market. I have my BS in Cybersecurity from Southern New Hampshire University. I like popping shells and long walks on the beach. Current certifications is CRTO, PNPT, PJPT, ISC^2 CC

Darius M. Davis is a cybersecurity consultant and detection engineer with over a decade of experience across security operations, cloud security, and incident response. He holds CISSP and CISM certifications and specializes in building practical, resilient security systems under real-world constraints—where tradeoffs around visibility, performance, and reliability matter more than tooling hype.
Darius is particularly interested in how constraint-driven environments expose flawed security assumptions and lead to better defensive design. He believes the best security lessons come from systems that broke, scaled poorly, or failed in unexpected ways—and that sharing those failures honestly makes everyone better defenders.

Darrius Robinson is a Security Consultant specializing in cloud security, identity, and adversary simulation. With over a decade of experience across IT and cybersecurity, he has worked in roles spanning systems administration, cloud engineering, security operations, and penetration testing, giving him a practical perspective on both building and breaking modern enterprise environments.

A Veteran, Cybersecurity Professional with nearly 2 decades of experience working in the Information Technology and Security fields within the Security Consulting, Banking, and Military Contracting industries, developing processes and integrations across multiple platforms. I am currently focusing on application, network, and cloud penetration testing and vulnerability/exploit analysis, with the creation of tools through popular programming languages to increase efficiencies within testing capabilities.

DAVID F. GARCHOW
garch9@hotmail.com | (678) 525-3539
Strategic Advisor • Executive Coach • Safety, Risk & High-Reliability Performance
EXECUTIVE PROFILE
Former nuclear executive and internationally recognized safety leader with 40+ years advising boards, CEOs, and senior leadership teams on safety culture, operational risk, governance, and organizational performance. Former Nuclear Vice President, Utility Engineering Director, INPO International Vice President, and WANO Atlanta Centre Director. Trusted advisor on leadership effectiveness, culture transformation, and high-reliability performance.
EXPERTISE
Executive & Board Advisory • Leadership Team Coaching • Safety Culture • Operational Risk • High-Reliability Organizations • Operational Excellence • Human Performance • Governance & Oversight • Organizational Effectiveness • Performance Improvement
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Led domestic and international performance improvement initiatives for INPO and WANO, advising executive teams across the global nuclear industry. Held senior leadership roles with Arizona Public Service and PSEG Nuclear, responsible for nuclear safety, operations, engineering, regulatory performance, stakeholder engagement, and strategic planning.
BOARD & ADVISORY ROLES
Independent Nuclear Safety Review Boards: Entergy and Ameren (2017-Present). Executive Patient Safety Committee: Northeast Georgia Health System. Provides independent oversight, risk insight, safety culture assessment, and strategic guidance.
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Guest lecturer for MIT Nuclear Science and Engineering and INPO. Speaker on leadership, safety culture, operational risk, and high-reliability organizations. Developed practical methodologies to strengthen culture and reduce cybersecurity-related human risk.
EDUCATION
Advanced Management Program, The Wharton School | M.S., Keller Graduate School of Management | B.S., Michigan State University | NRC Senior Reactor Operator License

Deven Nahata is a Threat Research Co-Op at GetReal Security, a deepfake detection startup, where he works on threat research spanning adversarial testing, dataset generation, and analysis of emerging synthetic media threats. His research includes building a fully automated deepfake vishing agent to expose gaps in commercial AI avatar guardrails, and he has published on AI-driven social engineering, presenting his findings to audiences ranging from enterprise security teams to industry conferences.

Deven is currently pursuing a degree in Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech, where he also serves as a Research Analyst with the GT Venture Capital Club. His broader background includes research experience at Carnegie Mellon's Smart Sensing Lab, the University of Toronto, and Rilian Technologies, along with a first-author publication in AI-driven autonomous vehicle perception.

Doug Burks started Security Onion in 2008 to provide a comprehensive platform to help folks peel back the layers of their enterprise and make their adversaries cry. Today, Security Onion has over 2,500,000 downloads and is being used by organizations around the world for threat hunting, enterprise security monitoring, and log management. In 2014, Doug started Security Onion Solutions LLC to help those organizations by providing training, professional services, and hardware appliances. Doug is a CEO, public speaker, teacher, former president of the Greater Augusta ISSA, and co-founder of BSides Augusta, but what he really likes the most is catching bad guys.

Andrew W. (Andy) Green, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Information Security and Assurance in the Department of Information Systems and Security at the Michael J. Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University. He directs the KSU Cyber Range at Coles College and serves as the faculty advisor for the Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) Club at KSU. Green also chairs the Parish Cybersecurity Committee of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

Before transitioning to full-time academia, Green spent more than twenty years in cybersecurity. His experience includes cybersecurity and IT consulting for small- to mid-sized businesses, as well as earlier work in healthcare IT, where he developed and supported transcription interfaces used by medical facilities across the U.S.

Green’s academic research examines the connections between information security, privacy, and public policy. His work has appeared in leading peer-reviewed journals, and he has co-authored several textbooks used in university courses worldwide. He also provides expert analysis and commentary on cybersecurity for various media outlets.

He currently serves as President of the Special Interest Group on Information Security and Privacy (SIG SEC) within the Association for Information Systems (AIS), an international association of information systems scholars that named him a Distinguished Member in 2025.

Green has been a BSides Atlanta organizer since 2018.

Eric M. Logan brings over 26 years of dedicated experience in IT and cybersecurity across K-12 and higher education environments. Currently serving as Director of Information & Network Security for DeKalb County School District, Eric leads the district's cybersecurity transformation, having built their first dedicated security team and launched innovative programs like Cyber Champions, which empowers students to become peer leaders in digital safety.

His career spans prestigious institutions including Georgia Tech Research Institute, where he served as Cybersecurity Operations Manager and later as Governance, Risk & Compliance Manager, and Emory University, where he provided technical expertise to researchers and managed campus-wide technology systems. Eric's unique perspective combines hands-on technical expertise with strategic leadership and a genuine passion for education.

Based in Thomaston, Georgia, Eric is deeply involved in professional organizations including ISSA, ISACA, and FBI InfraGard, and believes in building bridges between technical expertise and practical application in educational settings.

Lead Security Engineer responsible for end to end design and implementation of enterprise-scale products and operations.

Areas of focus:

• Enterprise and workforce AI security
• SaaS Security hardening & threat hunting
• Scaling operations and engineering solutions with automation
• Security strategy and metrics

Committed to my community. Ambitious learner and continual student.

Grace Pfohl is a Senior Consultant on risk3sixty’s ethOS Compliance Consulting team and serves as the AI Advisory Team Lead. She leads AI governance, security, and privacy engagements, helping organizations implement ISO/IEC 42001 programs as part of broader compliance initiatives through audits, risk assessments, and AI management system implementations.

With a strong technical background and deep specialization in AI governance, Grace has played a key role in helping organizations achieve some of the earliest ISO/IEC 42001 certifications. She works closely with clients to implement AI management systems aligned with emerging global standards, translating regulatory requirements into practical, risk‑based governance programs.

Grace holds both BS and MS degrees in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology, with a specialization in Human‑Computer Interaction. She is a certified ISO 42001 Lead Auditor and Implementer and regularly guides organizations through ISO 42001 implementations and internal audits, helping operationalize responsible AI practices at scale. She is also an active member of the WiCyS community, sharing applied perspectives on AI governance and responsible AI.

Harsh Akshit is an Al and Application Security Researcher/Engineer specializing in Al security, red teaming, and vulnerability management. He currently focuses on exploring security risks related to Model Context Protocol (MCP) and agentic Al systems at Metano AI [https://metano.ai/], alongside independent security research, including CVE discoveries (CVE-2026-54261 and CVE-2026-54259) and recognition in the Google Bug Hunter Hall of Fame.
He holds a Master's degree in Cybersecurity Risk Management from Indiana University Bloomington and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from BIT Mesra.
His previous experience includes working as a Security Consultant at Synopsys Inc., where he conducted application security and source code assessments for enterprise clients.

Isaac Obune is an AI and Product Security Architect and DBA candidate at Walsh College specializing in the secure design and governance of enterprise AI systems. With a background in product security and generative AI, Isaac focuses on architectural controls, risk modeling, and leadership decision making for LLM based and agentic systems. His work bridges applied industry practice and academic research to help organizations adopt AI safely and responsibly.

James Stephens is a Senior Consultant with CrowdStrike Professional Services, and is a 12 year veteran of cyber investigations.

I am a senior computer science student at KSU focused on AI, and an AI researcher at MechaMinds. I like modeling problems into systems that AI can reason about and solve. Karpathy says, “Anything verifiable is solvable.”

Jasmine Kaur Sethi is a Data, AI, and Business Transformation leader with more than a decade of experience helping global organizations modernize decision-making, optimize financial performance, and unlock value through analytics, automation, and emerging technologies.

As an Operations Research Advisor at FedEx Freight, Jasmine serves as a trusted advisor to senior business and technology leaders across Finance, Pricing, Operations, and Technology. She leads enterprise initiatives spanning profitability analytics, data modernization, cost optimization, governance, and AI-enabled decision support, influencing strategic decisions across North American operations. Her work supports large-scale transportation networks and complex financial ecosystems, driving measurable improvements in efficiency, transparency, and business performance.

Prior to FedEx, Jasmine was a Senior Consultant with Deloitte, where she partnered with Fortune 500 executives to deliver analytics-driven transformation, technology modernization, and process improvement initiatives. Throughout her career, she has successfully led cross-functional teams, translated complex business challenges into actionable strategies, and delivered scalable solutions that align technology investments with organizational goals.

Jasmine holds a Master of Science in Business Analytics from The University of Texas at Dallas and is a passionate advocate for responsible AI, data-driven leadership, and business transformation, Jasmine frequently speaks on the intersection of analytics, artificial intelligence, operational excellence, and enterprise strategy. Her work focuses on helping organizations leverage emerging technologies to solve complex challenges, strengthen resilience, and create sustainable competitive advantage.

A native of Maryland and a Division 1 tennis player from West Point, she brings a unique blend of discipline, teamwork, and leadership to her role as VP of People & Vibes at risk3sixty.
After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Jessica served as a human resource officer in the U.S. Army, specializing in talent management and development for combat units and the Army's General Officers. Following her military service, she earned her master’s in leadership from Georgetown University, further honing her skills in people and organizational development.

In 2020, Jessica joined risk3sixty as an Associate and quickly rose through the ranks, taking on roles of increasing responsibility in the People Operations team. In her current role as VP of People, Jessica leads risk3sixty's Vibes (HR) functions and has been instrumental in building the company's culture of 'Investing in People.'

Under Jessica's leadership, risk3sixty has built a high-performance culture that values collaboration, continuous learning, and employee wellbeing. She's implemented innovative programs to support employee growth and development, and instrumental in maintaining risk3sixty's employee retention and engagement rates.For Jessica, the key to success is creating an environment where every employee can thrive to keep the flywheel spinning. Her philosophy is simple: "Take care of your people, and they'll take care of the business."

Joe Gray is a veteran of the U.S. Navy Submarine Force and Expert Cyber Threat Researcher at Kudelski Security. Previously the Founder and Principal Instructor of The OSINTion, he has spent years building practical OSINT and operational security curriculum for students across skill levels.

Joe is the inaugural winner of the DerbyCon Social Engineering Capture the Flag, a distinction that earned him the DerbyCon Black Badge. His CTF record includes winning the TraceLabs OSINT Search Party at DEFCON 28 as a member of The Password Inspection Agency, DEFCON 29 as a member of The Federal Bureau of OH-SHINT, and DEFCON 30 as a member of The Eff Ess Bees. Independently, he placed 2nd in the HackFest Quebec Missing Persons CTF, 4th in the DerbyCon OSINT CTF, and 3rd in the National Child Protection Task Force Missing Persons CTF.

He is the author of Practical Social Engineering via No Starch Press and the creator of the OSINT tools DECEPTICON Bot and WikiLeaker. His work has been featured in Forbes and Dark Reading.

John A. Kwarsick is a researcher, speaker, and enterprise technology leader focused on making the human layer of AI measurable. He is the creator of WHEEL™, a constraint-based framework for diagnosing AI adoption and organizational readiness, and WHEEL OS™, an architecture for assessing whether enterprises retain the human capacity to govern AI under real operating conditions. He is also developing WHEEL OS AG, a governance system designed to identify where accountability may fail as multiple AI agents act across business functions and enterprise systems.

John has published a 12-paper research program on SSRN examining AI adoption, human governance capacity, agentic oversight, behavioral change, and the long-term effect of AI on human judgment. His perspective is informed by four decades in enterprise technology, including leadership roles at Microsoft and Check Point Software Technologies.

He speaks on agentic AI governance, enterprise AI transformation, cybersecurity and GRC, organizational readiness, and why AI initiatives often fail even when the technology works.

Jorge leads the Security Operations and Trust & Safety teams at GitLab, encompassing the SIRT, Detection Engineering, Threat Intelligence, Security Logging, Red team and Trust and Safety teams. Prior to GitLab, he Security Operations and Response teams at Zoom and Peloton, held several security and non-security roles at Microsoft, and piloted a desk in the US Air Force. Jorge hails from Puerto Rico, but has lived in ten different cities before relocating to the Alpharetta area in 2021.

Juan Villarreal is an accomplished energy-sector executive, reliability expert, and industrial cybersecurity leader with more than three decades of experience spanning electric power generation, critical infrastructure operations and maintenance, international business development, and cyber resilience.

Throughout his career, he has held senior leadership positions at General Electric, Babcock & Wilcox, and the Electric Power Research Institute, supporting utilities, power producers, and energy technology organizations across North America and global markets. He has successfully led initiatives that enhanced the reliability, performance, and resilience of nuclear, fossil, and renewable generation assets while helping organizations address the evolving challenges facing critical infrastructure.

Juan holds a Master of Science in Cybersecurity from Georgia Institute of Technology, a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley and a Bachelors in Nuclear Engineering from Kansas State University. Juan has specialized certifications in critical infrastructure protection and industrial reliability frameworks, including Supply Chain Security, GIAC Critical Infrastructure Protection (GCIP) and ISA/IEC 62443.

He currently contributes to U.S. Department of Energy Cyber-Informed Engineering initiative for improving the resilience of critical infrastructure and is on the drafting team for NERC’s CIP-013 - Cyber Security – Supply Chain Risk Management regulation update. Juan is the Chair of the Georgia ANS Local Section and the Chair of the ANS Local Section Committee.

Keith Thomas is a cybersecurity leader with more than 25 years of experience in information technology and over 15 years focused on cybersecurity, cloud, and Internet infrastructure. His background spans security operations, incident response, cloud transformation, enterprise architecture, and cybersecurity consulting for Fortune 500 organizations across multiple industries.

Throughout his career, Keith has helped organizations improve cyber resilience by securing complex environments, modernizing infrastructure, and aligning security operations with business objectives. His work has included cloud security, identity and access management, network security, security operations, governance, and emerging technologies.

Keith is an active contributor to the cybersecurity community, serving as President of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Atlanta Chapter and speaking regularly on topics including cloud security, operational resilience, and Internet infrastructure. He has presented at industry conferences and security events, sharing practical approaches that help organizations better understand and defend their digital environments.

His current research focuses on how publicly available Internet infrastructure, including DNS, certificates, and trust relationships, can be analyzed to improve organizational visibility, strengthen security posture, and better understand the techniques attackers use to build operational intelligence.

Christopher Atkinson and Keith Watson founded Atlanta Locksport on October 14th, 2019. Atlanta LockSport hosts the mini lockpicking village at dc404 meetings and we have monthly club meetings.

Atlanta LockSport is a collection of lockpicking enthusiasts from the Atlanta area. Lockpicking is a fun hobby, and the fundamental knowledge of locks, their operation, and selection for physical security is an essential skill for cybersecurity professionals.

Lindsey Nicholas is an AI Product Specialist at risk3sixty with a background as both an auditor and GRC program implementer supporting security and compliance initiatives across multiple frameworks. Before moving into product, Lindsey worked directly with organizations to assess, design, and operationalize governance, risk, and compliance programs, giving her firsthand insight into the real‑world challenges GRC teams face.

Today, she brings that practitioner perspective into building AI agents for internal teams and customers, focused on automating core GRC workflows while remaining secure, audit‑ready, and aligned with enterprise risk expectations. Lindsey’s work at risk3sixty sits at the intersection of compliance expertise and applied AI, helping organizations scale GRC operations without sacrificing trust or control.

Liz Morton is Chief Information Security Officer at Koda Security, an AI-native governance platform company. She brings 25+ years of experience as an operator across IT, Operations, and Cybersecurity, having built and led organizations in global financial services, manufacturing, distribution, and technology. She spent nine years at Intercontinental Exchange, parent of the New York Stock Exchange, first leading IT Engineering, and then transitioning to Head of Cybersecurity.

Liz holds an MBA from Georgia Tech and a CISSP. She writes and speaks on human/AI coexistence, leadership, and cybersecurity, and serves as an advisor and board member for several organizations. She lives in Roswell with her family.

I'm a professional penetration tester and red team operator. The security community has given me a lot, and I like to give back when I can.

I like hands-on DIY work. I'm like a mad scientist, my house is filled with invisible conveniences that (mostly) work.

Markus has worked on Detection Engineering for more than 20 years at SecureWorks, Google, Netflix, Databricks and more.

Matt Coons is the head of Detection Engineering, Threat Hunting, and Trust and Safety at GitLab. Matt has an undergraduate degree from Defiance College in Digital Forensic Science and a master's degree from Champlain University in Information Security Operations. Matt has a diverse cybersecurity background with experience working within the healthcare, professional services and higher education sectors.

Matt has been an amateur security enthusiast since the 90s and was a regular 2600 attendee. Holding a B.S. in Computer Science from The University of Kansas, Matt honed his technical skills over 6 years as a systems administrator for various Kansas City businesses. In 2013, he combined his knowledge of complex business computing systems and love for security to pivot into a career in information security. Since then, he has hacked on hundreds of systems and applications for both Fortune 100 companies and smaller startups. His expertise lies in the nuanced realms of Web and Mobile application testing, along with comprehensive Cloud security reviews. Matt excels in uncovering business logic flaws-subtle vulnerabilities often overlooked by automated scanners. Matt has given talks and trainings at security events such as SecKC, Kernelcon, and BSidesKC. A highlight of his career includes presenting tools of his own design at BlackHat USA in both 2015 and 2017.

Mehul is a seasoned cybersecurity product leader with a proven track record of building award-winning products and scaling B2B SaaS and open-source solutions. With over 20 years of experience in enterprise security, he has led product, engineering, and research teams at industry leaders including Qualys and Tenable.

Lead Penetration Tester

Phil Brass has worked in Information Security since 1998. He has been a software engineer, penetration tester, secure code reviewer, application security tester, manager, director and vice president of consulting services.

Pranay Singh Suri is a cybersecurity engineer and AI security practitioner with more than three years of experience across security testing, threat modeling, cloud assurance, and governance, risk, and compliance. He currently serves as an Associate Security Engineer at Coalfire Systems, where he conducts web application and network penetration testing, reviews security configurations against NIST 800-53 requirements, and threat-models cloud services and AI systems for FedRAMP environments.

Previously, Pranay worked at Grant Thornton and Deloitte, leading vendor security assessments, SOC 1 and SOC 2 reviews, IT control testing, and risk-remediation initiatives across financial services, healthcare, and cloud environments.

He also develops security automation and AI solutions, including CoalHex, an AWS Bedrock–based agentic workflow designed to improve security and compliance support. Pranay has presented on AI security, GRC, security automation, and security engineering at multiple BSides conferences and other industry events.

He holds a Master of Science in Cybersecurity Analytics and Operations from Penn State and is certified in CISA, ISO 27001 Lead Auditor, CCSK v5, Security+, and eJPT. His interests include penetration testing, cloud security, AI threat modeling, and bridging technical security with enterprise risk and compliance.

Qasim is the Director of Cybersecurity at a leading healthcare organization, overseeing detection, incident response, vulnerability management, purple teaming, and cybersecurity engineering. With a strong background in offensive security and risk management, he has helped organizations strengthen their defenses against evolving threats. Passionate about bridging the gap between cybersecurity and business, Qasim specializes in offensive security and cybersecurity strategy. He is also a dedicated educator, mentoring professionals and sharing his expertise at conferences such as BSides and Black Hat. Committed to advancing cybersecurity in healthcare, he drives innovation in proactive defense and risk management.

Randy is a security practitioner who leads hands-on AI initiatives inside their organization, spanning vulnerability management automation, enterprise AI platform deployment, and AI governance. They led a real-world ISO 42001 implementation from the ground up, working alongside cross-functional teams to build the policies, controls, and processes required to responsibly govern AI at scale. Coming from a security background rather than a traditional software engineering path, they bring a practical, no-nonsense perspective to a fast-moving space, focused on what actually works when the theory meets a real audit, a real rollout, and a real deadline.

While I’ve been paid professionally for information security for the past 10 years, I’ve been a tinkering of computer software for many more. I’m the current ctf lead for DC864 but could not make it possible with the rest of the team and their technical abilities.

Emacs should have won the editor war.

Samson Adewale is a Senior Security Engineer, specializing in threat response and automation. He has led initiatives building automated forensics labs and response frameworks in cloud environments. With a background spanning AWS, Azure, and DevSecOps, Samson is passionate about practical applications of AI to reduce operational overhead and enhance security resilience.

With over 25 years of engineering experience, I build mission-critical software for organizations where reliability, accuracy, and compliance are non-negotiable.

My background spans the public and private sectors. I have engineered solutions for the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, architected video infrastructure at Brightcove, and built client-facing systems at Cricket Wireless.

I am currently building Fidensa, which produces verifiable evidence of how an agentic AI system behaves when given real agency inside a contained environment. I also designed and built Cartopian, a filesystem-first protocol that structures project work for humans and AI agents under bounded automation and optional review.

IT Internal Auditor, Cybersecurity professional
If looking to get into the industry, stop by and have a talk.

Scott Stanton has been a cybersecurity practitioner for over 20 years, with technical roles spanning software development, infrastructure, cloud, and security. He currently leads the cybersecurity and data privacy program for JAS Worldwide, a global freight logistics provider.

Prior to JAS, Stanton was BISO and Director of Threat & Vulnerability Management at Owens & Minor, CISO at Halyard Health/Avanos Medical, and was a security architect at Cisco Systems. He also served in technical security roles for Scientific-Atlanta, Coca-Cola, and General Electric. He holds a BA in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Albany.

Shikirra is a security analyst transitioning to a GRC practitioner with hands-on experience across SOC operations, incident triage, and compliance framework development in a multi-tenant MSP environment.

As founder of ShiDoesCyber, she built a platform dedicated to making cybersecurity knowledge honest, accessible, and actionable.

She brings a practitioner’s perspective to the AI governance conversation, not theory, but the view from someone who has done alert triage, built risk registers, and watched AI adoption happen in real client environments without governance frameworks in sight. This is her first conference talk submission.

She built it the same way she builds everything: starting from what she actually observed, anchoring it in primary source documentation, and making it useful for the people in the room.

Super NERD!
...here to make everything more complicated

Spencer Brown is a Research Engineer at GTRI, where he works in systems security, software assurance, reverse engineering, and formal methods. He holds a master's degree in Computer Science from Georgia Tech and enjoys tinkering with hardware and computer history. Outside of work, he's usually planning a backpacking or climbing trip.

I am sophomore at Purdue University studying Computer Engineering. I hold OSCP+, CRTO, CRTL certifications and intern for Tesla on the Product Security Team.

Steve Guris is Threat Intelligence Lead at risk3sixty, where he focuses on cybercrime research, threat actor monitoring and hunting, and incident response. His work spans the full threat intelligence lifecycle — from pre-incident adversary profiling to active investigation support. He is best known publicly for his work in gaming security, including expert analysis in federal litigation involving commercial game cheats: a declaration in Bungie v. Wallhax and expert witness testimony at the Bungie v. Phoenix Digital (AimJunkies) federal jury trial. He has spoken at GDC on gaming security topics, most recently on a 2026 panel with Perkins Coie LLP on investigating and enforcing IP and contractual rights in games.

It's me, Ripple.

Business school dropout
Party school graduate
Information Technology Specialist, PMP, CISSP

Tiffanie Fix is an Incident Response Consultant for IBM X-Force specializing in Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) and Operational Technology (OT)/Cyber-Physical system (CPS) security. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Cyber Security Engineering from Iowa State University and is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Cyber security Engineering. She has research experience in connected vehicle/V2X technology, cryptographic cache-based side-channel attacks, and smart grid technology.

Security researcher, auditor, and lifelong technology enthusiast. I do R&D and security auditing at Vert3x and co-captain Squid Proxy Lovers, one of the largest competitive CTF teams in the world.

Wes Widner is a Senior Principal Engineer with a background in security, distributed systems, and large scale data infrastructure. He began his career on McAfee’s Global Threat Intelligence team, before data engineering was widely recognized as a discipline, and later became the founding manager of CrowdStrike’s multi cloud team. He now leads strategic engineering initiatives at Cyberhaven.

Wes is also the founder of Tensor Lab, a nonprofit AI research organization focused on understanding how modern AI systems actually work, how they fail, and how they can be tested more rigorously. Tensor Lab’s ten person research team investigates open weight models, local inference, model integrity, adversarial behavior, agent security, and the consequences of giving AI systems access to real tools and infrastructure. This talk grew directly out of that research.

His work focuses on the hidden assumptions inside complex systems, especially the high trust assumptions organizations make when adopting AI agents and third party models. He is particularly interested in model modification, alignment changes, and the gap between how a model behaved when it was released and how it behaves after someone else controls the weights.

Tensor Lab is always interested in meeting curious researchers who want to help explore these questions.

Xavier Ashe has been hacking since the late 80s and been working in information security since the early 90s. He is currently a Senior Vice President at Truist and a Georgia Institute of Technology alumnus. Xavier has over 30 years of leadership experience in information security, working for various firms including IBM, Gartner, and Carbon Black. Xavier was the first hire at the startup, Drawbridge Networks, where he was instrumental in bringing the first microsegmentation solution for servers and workstations to market. Mr. Ashe has plenty of war stories, including the first DDOS attack ever, Target, Sony, Aramco, NotPetya, and others. Xavier is an accomplished speaker and has presented at many security conferences including DefCon, BlackHat, RSA, BSides, Splunk .conf, SANS, and others.

When not hacking the planet, Xavier spends time with his 8 kids, enjoys backpacking, and is a privacy advocate. His advocacy includes lobbying at the Georgia capital and training non-technical people about digital privacy and threat modeling.

Zach Comstock is a research engineer with a background in computer science, reverse engineering, embedded systems, and cybersecurity. His work focuses on understanding complex hardware and software systems, with experience spanning low-level analysis, firmware, wireless technologies, and system security. He has spent much of his career working on technically challenging problems that sit at the intersection of hardware and software, and he enjoys breaking down unfamiliar systems to understand how they work.

Zach Fey is a Staff Engineer who owns the AI platform for a GRC SaaS product, where he built the MCP server infrastructure, semantic search, and RAG systems that put AI in front of production data. He is pursuing his MS in Computer Science at Georgia Tech and writes about applied AI engineering at zachfey.com.