2025-08-05 –, Firenze
Enhance your career in privacy, security, and open source by actively engaging with your local community. Discover how working with low-income students and their parents not only sharpens your own skills but also cultivates a culture of awareness and responsibility. Get ready to roll up your sleeves and gain hands-on experience right in your hometown! This session will provide you with actionable strategies from my journey in guiding K-12 students and their families as they learn about security and privacy. Together, we can empower the next generation and strengthen our communities—one practical lesson at a time. Don’t sit on the sidelines; seize this opportunity to elevate your career while making a real impact! Join us and take the first step toward your future!
After feeling lost in roles that didn’t fulfill me, I took some time to reflect on how to create change in my life. With a longstanding interest in security and a concern for the lack of knowledge many people have about safe internet browsing, I decided to immerse myself in this field. Fortunately, I discovered a club dedicated to helping low-income students in the community gain internet access, enabling them to compete with their classmates in terms of information and knowledge. From my very first meeting, I knew I had found something that would truly fulfill me. I was later elected President of the club, where I not only assist students but also manage tasks such as loading open-source software on desktops and troubleshooting bugs in our systems. This role has allowed me to streamline our processes while honing my professional skills. During this talk I would like to share my passion for open source and giving back to others in true open source fashion. I am eager to share my experiences and inspire others to seek hands-on opportunities that enable them to develop skills while making a positive impact in their communities. Last year this topic was mentioned at I am the Calvary during a talk done by Ira Victor, throughout the rest of the conference we had many people come up and talk to us about how to get more involved. Not only would I have a mentor from Proving Grounds but also have the assistance of an infosec and DFIR expert who was a previous BSides speaker, to also help mentor me with this talk.
Ashley Cihak is the youngest President of a non profit club that specializes in providing students linux-based computers over the last 17 years. The Club has taught over 15,000 low-income students and their parents about security, privacy and open-source software. While managing the club takes up a significant amount of her time, Ashley works as the SAP Administrator and Office Manager at a snow grooming company. In her spare time, she enjoys listening to live music and flying hot air balloons.