Talks

Presentations I've given at various Cybersecurity conferences and hacker groups.

Who Cashed My Check?! Catching (Very Obvious) Fraudsters

Centering DEF CON's theme for 2024 "Engage" - this talk focuses on engaging with one's community and using "the basics" to make a contribution no matter how small. For this talk, I used an example of my experience in identifying criminals responsible for committing forgery against a local business; to encourage others to use the existing skills they have to make a change. I included 5 simple and free OSINT resources available to the public to help newcomers build a toolkit. By sharing my experience, my goal for this presentation was to encourage others to look for areas in their community where they can make an intentional, and meaningful contribution.

DEFCON 32's DC Groups VR Village (2024)

Gender Inclusive Features Across the Health Information System

Covering the data flow and navigation of patient information through the health information system, attendees were provided with a brief overview of a hospital health information system, including what goes into gender-inclusive care features in the system, and how these features integrate across various systems within a larger HIS environment. Audience members also learned about hospital instrumentation and device communication as part of the PHI data flow. This research aimed to explore a unique risk to gender-nonconforming and transgender patients and bring awareness to the complicated implementation process surrounding gender inclusivity in healthcare.

DEFCON 31's DC Groups VR Village (2023)

Security Concerns of the Medical Laboratory

In this presentation, I provided an introduction to the medical laboratory and testing process. The audience learned about patient sample workflow, and how their patient data is handled. I outlined security risks to PHI inside and outside of the medical laboratory and introduced the audience to laboratory instrumentation and the laboratory information system.

DEFCON 30's DC Groups VR Village (2022), BSides Bloomington (2024)

Basic OSINT: Mining Personal Data

My presentation outlined the fundamentals of open source intelligence and provided a template for organizing subject data. Attendees were provided with digital resources and tips to improve their intelligence gathering skillset. This talk was presented a second time on request for DC858, a local computer security group for San Diego, California.

DC858 (2021), DEFCON 28's DC Groups VR Village (2020), CU2600 @ Lincoln Square Mall, Urbana IL, (2018)

Tracking the Period Trackers

This research was conducted as a Capsule8 Summercon Fellowship grant recipient and focused on the security and privacy of period tracking apps, which help women track their menstrual periods and other aspects of their reproductive health. This research was intended to provide me experience as a mentee. I selected 10 popular period tracking apps and discussed privacy issues related to mobile applications alongside a mentor, creating accounts and running the apps in simulated environments. We introduced static and dynamic analysis techniques used to evaluate the behavior of the apps, and shared information about freely available resources that researchers and concerned citizens can use to examine Android apps for privacy and security issues. In addition, as a healthcare student I investigated, poised concern, and invited a broader discussion to bring awareness to the lack of research and regulation surrounding healthcare applications and patient confidentiality.

Summercon 2019, Littlefield, Brooklyn NY: Slides

OSINT: Utilizing Buscador

My presentation served as a tutorial on configuring Buscador, the Linux OS developed by Michael Bazzell of Intel Techniques and pre-configured for online investigators. Attendees learned how to set up Buscador as a Virtual Machine and were given an overview of the tools and features offered to aid in their investigations.

DC217 @ The Urbana Free Library (2018)

Laser Demo: Cool Like Styropyro

We played with a high-powered laser from my collection for this one. Attendees were advised to wear safety glasses. We lit a match, burned holes in cardboard, and colored targets on balloons with black sharpie marker so attendees could take turns popping them with the laser. An all-around fun time for those who remembered to bring their safety gear.

DC217 @ Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (2018)