BSides Ahmedabad 0x03 : My Take on it
A personal Experience to the finest conference I have been to
Hello people, It’s been very long time since I wrote any blogs related to anything specifically Cyber Security. Here I am sharing my experience of one of the finest Cyber Security Conference I have attended. This blog contains a detailed explanation about my journey from attending my first conference to being volunteer in the next edition to meeting some of the Industry experts in-person. As the poster says BIGGER and BETTER, actually was mind-boggling to be part of such conference.
First Cyber Security In-Person Conference
It was last year after pandemic when I heard about BSides Ahmedabad Conference via some tweet, was curious as it was happening in the nearby city. I got conference Student pass in a giveaway and this was my first Cyber Security Conference. Got to learn so much and most important for me was networking with the people and taking some valuable lessons from their journey and experience was so organic and enriching. Back to present days, I kept a close eye on their social media pages as was so curious to attend their 3rd edition.
Volunteering at Next Edition
After seeing this tweet, I immediately applied for being the volunteer and guess what…got selected too. I was over the moon, that happiness. I was aware about the hard-work it would take to be volunteer but was ready to give my best to this too, keeping in mind the motive of “Giving back to the society” . Slowly we got to know the speakers who would be delivering talks on different topics and that raised my excitement to other level. There were people who asked me after the conference about how to be volunteer at BSides Ahmedabad. But, all i have to say is to keep a close eye on their social media handles and you will find a way. This was just first step. We as a team gave our best, knowing the fact that most of us were doing a full time job alongside. The people were amazing and supportive, it was the best team I have had an opportunity to work in…possibly not the last one 😉.
Event Day — 1st OCTOBER 2022
This was the first day of the October month and we all know that October month is celebrated as #cybersecurityawareness Month Internationally. Numerous companies, government organizations and communities try different ways to contribute their way into making this word a digitally safer place to live. I could have not asked for a better start to this awareness month.
I reached Ahmedabad one day earlier out of an excitement. On that very day got to meet some of the people giving their all to make this event a grand success from the time this conference came into existence. They all had so many years of experience being into corporate world,some even running their own startups. So had so much of chat regarding how to plan a career path, what all challenges they faced during their initial days and of course some work related to event. We almost worked and chilled till 2:30 AM knowing the fact that next day we have to be at venue before 6 AM at maximum. I was quite nervous too for the next day. The biggest fear was, what if I was unable to wake-up in time 😂 but things went quite well.
Being volunteer at any of the event gives an opportunity to learn what hard-work it takes to manage and execute such level of events. Attention to details, Communication, eagerness to learn are some of the things I feel are important to be volunteer. On the event day, crowd started to gather in the early morning and we already had an idea about number of people. The event agenda was something like this….
The first thing loved in the morning was this cool swag tee, specially made for the volunteers stating “HACKERS HELPING HACKERS”🤩.
Once we started getting people in, I was randomly asking several groups about their excitement and what are they expecting being here…and accidentally met a group of Juniors from my own university. All filled with enthusiasm and excitement, reminded me of the times I first time attended this conference.
There were several talks, Drone Hacking village, 3 Panel Discussion and a Bug Bounty Show…all packed with tons of learning for a Cyber Security Aspirants. The room was house full as you can see in the following snippets
The two halls were Imperial Stand, one which was main hall (auditorium kind of) and the other “Imperial Hall 1” which had less capacity. All the keynotes and talks had to happen in the main hall “Imperial stand” and panel discussions and bug bounty show happened in “Imperial Hall 1". A special hall was assigned for Drone hacking village called “Imperial hall 2”. I was not able to attend many talks as we have been with the speakers and I was busy asking people their experience…some experienced geeks and other students and beginners like me. Here are some of the following snippets and would describe what major lessons i got interacting with them.
First one was one of the Rock star of the event, most of people starting in cyber security look for his video at some point of the career. He is famously known as The Cyber Mentor, Heath Adams (CEO TCM Security, Youtuber and Mentor) and Opening keynote speaker. Interacting with him, learned regarding his experience being an entrepreneur in Cyber Security domain. He explained what things we should keep in mind while planning for a Cyber Security startup. One main thing to note was “While planning for a startup, don’t always look for unique ides. Look to implement things in unique ways and you will create an impact for sure”. His opening key note was bang bang…people got an opportunity to clear some of their doubts related to the field.
The other one is Inspiring many people via his famous #learn365 series on Social Media. I was in contact with him before meeting him finally in-person for the first time. He is Harsh Bothra (Core Lead Pentester at Cobalt.io). Just interacted with him some random topics, because we have been discussing related to cyber security over social media and even on a call once or twice. A lot to learn from him when it’s about being consistent with what you do, not an easy task for sure what he has been doing for a while now.
The man of the hour…Hussein Daher (Entrepreneur, CEO https://WebImmunify.com). Interacting with him was some of the best moments I would cherish for a longer time. He is full packed masterpiece, be it regarding lessons related to bug bounty, entrepreneurship or some life lessons. I had an opportunity to assist him for the time till his talk and really was glad how he made people understand things so easily. One very important lesson I remember told by him “If you are not giving 100% to something, better leave it rather than wasting your energy and time”. His talk on the topic Bug Bounty on Steroids was a full packed session. He loved India and how people are passionate about tech here.
The other one in the frame is Social media icon and all of us have watched her vlogs or podcast (Personally fan of this section) at some point of time. She considers herself noobiest of the noobs but but she is Team Lead Security Operations at Bugcrowd. From no where around in the cyber security to inspiring lots of people to take-up this field as a career, she came long way. Interacting with her was all about taking related to her podcasts and how one should plan if he/she is planning to create some crazy useful contents. Everyone has some skills but what matters is the process you follow to sharpen that daily and how that could be help other people make some progress. Her bug bounty panel was a hit show…
The one in the frame is Kavisha Sheth (Cyber Security Specialist at Virtusa). She was speaker at second edition too, an AI and ML enthusiast with some crazy knowledge about cyber security stuffs. Her panel on Breaking into Information Security was startling just like her journey, beginners surely got lessons to learn. She showed that you don’t need so many years of experience to be a speaker, not insane level of English but do require ability to convey your message & something that people can understand and learn from it nor exceptionally different topic…all you need is confidence and eagerness to giveback what you learned. In the last, it’s about adding value.
The GOAT we know him by his twitter handle, he is charming, cool and jolly person I met at this conference. He is Yassine Aboukir (Offensive Security Consultant and HackerOne h1303 Most valuable Hacker) and was second Keynote speaker for the event. Was not able to listen to his talk due to some reasons, but met him during networking lunch and boom…he is gem man. Working on some insane level of stuffs 🤯. He was one wandering all over the venue so that more and more people could get chance to interact and he could help them with their doubts.
This was all about how I met some of the prodigious personalities at the event…there were many more people I interacted with and obviously got some career related advises and some life learning advises from their experience.
The after party which was at Doubletree by Hillton was worth remembering, GarbaXDj night was filled with so much of entertainment.
Team BSides Ahmedabad 0x03
It was the best team I have ever volunteered with, so many experienced people giving their bit so that we as a beginner won’t face those hurdles which they faced during their initial days. I totally loved this journey from just being an attendee to being a volunteer, moreover loved how people in the team treated and helped each other…Professionally and to an extend personally. Heartfelt thanks to the entire team for successfully raising the bar about how a Cyber Security conference should be like, lucky enought to be part of this team.
This conference helped me know the important lessons you learn while volunteering for any event, so to all the readers try volunteering at the maximum events you could. This way you are getting to network with the different people, learn valuable lessons and also contribute a bit by giving back to the society.
Thank you very much for reading it till here. To all those who could not get your pass, please make sure you grab them next year before it’s all sold out. Until next conference…Hack, Eat, Sleep and Repeat.
Get connected with me here :
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yash-gorasiya/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/r3v3Ncl4W
