BSides Roanoke 2023 Speakers

Brian has built a long career as an infrastructure expert with a passion for security. This has led him to many opportunities to work as an engineer and leader building infrastructure for general use, as well as working to build systems that directly support security use cases. In the late 2000s he built his first log server using syslog-ng and MySQL, and long-lasting love affair with managing machine data for security was kindled. Today Brian continues that work by leading teams in developing modern, flexible platforms for threat detection and response.

Jeff Hoge is a Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at Echelon Risk + Cyber. Jeff has worked in the technology space for 18 years, including network engineering and systems administration. Most recently, he implemented and led the information security program at a regional healthcare insurer. His passion is helping individuals and organizations better defend themselves from cyber threats with an empathetic, relationship-oriented approach. Jeff currently serves as the Vice-President of the Triad of NC ISSA chapter and loves spending time with his four children.

With a background in computer science, I transitioned to Application Security seamlessly after college. My goal is to make security easily accessible to everyone, through improving security culture and the developer experience. I believe that security should be a team that helps guide people forward instead of being a frustrating blocker. I am passionate about getting minorities, especially women, excited about security.

Larry Whiteside Jr. is a veteran CISO, CSO, CTO, former USAF Officer, and thought leader in the Cybersecurity field. He has 25+ years experience in building and running cybersecurity programs, holding C Level Security executive roles in multiple industries including DoD, Federal Government, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Critical Infrastructure.

Larry is a seasoned cybersecurity professional with nearly 30 years experience in cybersecurity with over 25 of that being in an executive role. He serves as the CISO for RegScale, an organization that is working to shift compliance left and freeing organizations from the paper world of compliance.

My name is Logan, I'm a Roanoke native and have lived here most of my life. I'm a Senior Offensive Security Consultant with years of penetration testing experience & a lifelong interest in it.

Tweeks (or Thomas Weeks) is the Director of Future Technology at Virginia Tech, Division of IT, and also sits as a Consulting Engineer at the Virginia Cyber Range where he creates cloud VM images for the Range, writes/edits Range labs, and works with Range authors to get their lab content working in the Range. Tweeks is a also a homeschooling technologist who's been teaching STEM / technology classes for 20+yrs, sits on the SW VA region's RBTC STEM and CyberSecurity committees and is very active in the NRV STEM education community. In his spare time he likes playing with high power rockets as President of nrvr.org, electronics and really loves teaching kids how to peek behind the curtain of modern technology (LetsCodeBlacksburg.org).