Hi and welcome to Sabirism's malicious life besides I'm Ran Levy. RAN levy. The Wild West hacking fest is a unique security conference and not only

because it is held in South Dakota and not only because of the Wild West visual vibe

but also because of the emphasis it puts on diversity and lowering the entry barriers for people who wish to join the world of information security.

In this episode you'll hear Eliad Kimch's conversation with John Strand, one of the conference's founders, owner of Blackhill's

Information Security, a firm specializing in pen testing, co-host of the Security Weekly Podcast and a retired senior sons instructor.

John and Elliot spoke about the advantages of holding a conference in a relatively remote location, how such conferences can help to bring new faces

to cyber security and about the importance of diversity in cyber security in general. Enjoy the episode.

So today we have with this John Strand, one of the founders of the Wild West

Hacking Fest conference in Deadwood South Dakota, one of the most interesting and

unique conferences I've had the privilege of going to.

So thank you for joining us today, John.

You bet, happy to be here.

So you want to talk to John because we want to talk a little bit about the history of Wild West

Hacking Fest and the other activities that he's been doing all over the United States.

And one of the craziest things about Wild Dust Heking Fest right off the bat is that it's happening in a small town called Deadwood in South Dakota in the middle of nowhere.

The first question I ask everybody South Dakota in the middle of nowhere.

The first question I ask everybody on this segment is why start a conference,

but I want to ask you specifically, why start a conference in South Dakota,

Deadwood South Dakota? Deadwood, South Dakota.

So this was interesting.

Most of the time whenever I was presenting or teaching at conferences, I was always flying

somewhere, right?

...