Meet the Staff

John Harper

Founder

What year did you get your first shell?

Technically, I started on a shell with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s. My first sploit shell was in the mid-’90s.

What do you do when you are not "hacking"?

I’m typically outdoors; camping, biking, fishing, volleyball.

What is your favorite security topic/area?

Offensive Security mainly, but really anything that can be used to help educate others or raise awareness.

What do you think is the most underrated hacker movie that isn't technically a hacker movie?

Holes. Gran Torino would be my second choice, but it was highly rated sooo…

Who are the top three people you would attribute success to in your career?

My late uncle, John Stiverson, got me into tech. My blackhat high school best friend (who shall remain nameless); way too much fun in those wild-west days (statute of limitations!). It’s hard to pick just three; I’ve had many great mentors/coaches/teachers in a non-traditional sense. Many came from when I was working at AEP and Nationwide Insurance, but if I have to pick a third, I will go with Jason Montgomery, who taught me a ton about AppSec.

What is your mother's maiden name?

‘ OR 1=1

What city did you meet your spouse in?

Gotham City

What was your high school mascot?

John-the-Ripper

LinkedIn Twitter GitHub YouTube

HTH Discord: Rollinz007

TJ Toterhi

Director of Events & Co-Operator

What year did you get your first shell?

Oh, why I reckon that was 2013, 2014. I do remember getting 3 shells in a bathroom one time. I had no idea what to do with them.

What do you do when you are not "hacking"?

Hanging out with the family, playing video games, and lately volleyball.

What is your favorite security topic/area?

Web applications, but I've been doing more and more into cloud stuff, so I've been digging that.

What do you think is the most underrated hacker movie that isn't technically a hacker movie?

I don't care what the question is, it's Hackers. It's always Hackers.

Who are the top three people you would attribute success to in your career?

Alex D., Jon G., Lisa T.

What is your mother's maiden name?

Nice

What city did you meet your spouse in?

Try

What was your high school mascot?

Jerk. lol

LinkedIn Twitter

HTH Discord: hoshin

Evan Dick

Director of Villages

What year did you get your first shell?

I believe it was 2012 while taking a Metasploit class offered by Dave Kennedy.

What do you do when you are not "hacking"?

Spending time with his family, traveling, soccer, 3d printing, and drinking/collecting bourbon

What is your favorite security topic/area?

Password cracking

What do you think is the most underrated hacker movie that isn't technically a hacker movie?

GoldenEye

Who are the top three people you would attribute success to in your career?

I always hate questions like these. The people who have played the biggest role know who they are and of my appreciation.

What is your mother's maiden name?

Ĉæñßœŧż

What city did you meet your spouse in?

Qeqertarsuatsiaat, Greenland

What was your high school mascot?

Sammy the Banana Slug

LinkedIn Twitter

HTH Discord: gtrdlr

John Toterhi

Director of CTF

What year did you get your first shell?

Technically sometime in the mid 90s wardialing with my brother, using our only phone line when our parents went to sleep. We'd run it all night, stop it early in the morning, then checking results, dialing into systems one by one looking for any with no credentials. But we had no real idea what we were doing so 2010 would be my first shell obtained through exploitation.

What do you do when you are not "hacking"?

I love learning and picking up new hobbies. I'm currently building a Nerf-clone blaster (Gecko) with 3D printed components from my Ender-3. I've also have a newly developed passion for building with LEGO as a way to unwind from my work and research. I've found it to be an exceptional medium for dealing with stress and anxiety.

What is your favorite security topic/area?

Reverse engineering and vulnerability research

What do you think is the most underrated hacker movie that isn't technically a hacker movie?

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

Who are the top three people you would attribute success to in your career?

I could easily fill this page with the names of people I will feel forever in debt to, but I've always looked up to members of my first vulnerability research team: Scott Lee, Nathan Voss, Dave Andrews. A fraction of their technical ability, leadership, work ethic will be something I aspire to achieve for the rest of my career.

What is your mother's maiden name?

Mc-Hey! Wait a minute...

What city did you meet your spouse in?

Oh, I see what you're doing here. Nice one!

What was your high school mascot?

The Naperville Trash Pandas. GO DUMPSTER DIVERS!

YouTube Twitter GitHub

HTH Discord: cetfor

Teresa Harper

Director of Sponsorship

What year did you get your first shell?

Like, on the beach? ;-)

What do you do when you are not "hacking"?

I don’t hack, so pretty much anything

What is your favorite security topic/area?

Not really my jam

What do you think is the most underrated hacker movie that isn't technically a hacker movie?

I don’t watch hacker movies

Who are the top three people you would attribute success to in your career?

My husband, John Harper, made me do this.

What is your mother's maiden name?

Wasn’t

What city did you meet your spouse in?

Born

What was your high school mascot?

Yesterday

HTH Discord: tfunk

Matt McMeans

Director of Creative

What year did you get your first shell?

Virginia Beach 1984

What do you do when you are not "hacking"?

Spending time outside hiking or MTB

What is your favorite security topic/area?

Vulnerability Management

What do you think is the most underrated hacker movie that isn't technically a hacker movie?

Tron

Who are the top three people you would attribute success to in your career?

Adam Levine, John Harper, and John Harper

What is your mother's maiden name?

Toterhi

What city did you meet your spouse in?

Whynot, NC

What was your high school mascot?

Banana Slugs

LinkedIn Twitter

HTH Discord: mcm3nac3

Jon Gorenflo

Director of Speakers

What year did you get your first shell?

1999...but I didn't really know what I had done. My friend and I bound the Sub7 trojan to the Desktop Destroyer app and sent it to our friends...and others. (Video of some dude demoing the Desktop Destroyer app. I LOLed at his explanation of why this is safe.) Desktop Destroyer App

My first real shell with an exploit was in early 2012, I think.

What do you do when you are not "hacking"?

Other than thinking about hacking? I enjoy BBQ, mountain biking, gaming, and time with the family.

What is your favorite security topic/area?

I love the offensive things. All of them. If I had to pick a blue team thing, it would probably be network security things.

What do you think is the most underrated hacker movie that isn't technically a hacker movie?

Ocean's Eleven. Seriously. Watch it. It's full of recon, enumeration, social engineering, misdirection, a trojan horse, exfiltration, and covering their tracks.

Who are the top three people you would attribute success to in your career?

Who limited this to 3? That person should be shamed and reprimanded publicly. <INSERT SHAME GIF HERE>

On the personal side, I'd have to credit my wife for being a constant encourager and believing in me when I don't believe in myself.

Professionally? Wow. Too many to reduce to 2. Let's limit it to the past decade...

Josh Fenton for giving me a chance in my first full-time security role, despite a botched interview. (Side note: Always send a sincere "Thank you" email after an interview. That crap works.)

Mick Douglas for being an amazing friend and mentor as I navigated the process of becoming a Certified SANS Instructor. I wouldn't have made it without him.

The number of other friends, colleagues, instructors, acquaintances, students, and lookie-loos that have helped shape me could fill volumes. Catch me at the con to hear about the people that have helped shape my character and we'll have lots to talk about.

What is your mother's maiden name?

smith'

What city did you meet your spouse in?

ERROR 1064: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'WHERE mother_maiden='smith'' at line 1

What was your high school mascot?

smith'; DROP TABLE bios; --

LinkedIn Twitter GitHub

HTH Discord: flakpaket

Zack Nagaich

Director of Technology

What year did you get your first shell?

I think my first shell was probably back in 2014 when I first started doing capture the flag events.

What do you do when you are not "hacking"?

If I’m not using a computer to break things, then I enjoy using them for gaming. When I get tired of computers, I enjoy traveling the world and flying drones.

What is your favorite security topic/area?

I've always had a passion for the offensive side of security. Learning enough about new technologies and then using that knowledge to break them is always a rewarding endeavor. From enterprise networks, cloud environments, web applications, and everything in between there is always something new to keep things fresh.

What do you think is the most underrated hacker movie that isn't technically a hacker movie?

Okay, maybe not ‘underrated’ but I would say Jurassic Park. If the premium grade dinosaurs aren't enough, it also has several very iconic and quotable hacker lines.

Who are the top three people you would attribute success to in your career?

There have been a lot of individuals who acted as role models and mentors for me as I've grown into my career. Thinking of my top three though has me rewinding things back to my undergraduate studies at Ohio State. It was here that my first exposure to information security occurred and where it was made clear that this is a field that I could and wanted to pursue.

Stephanie Domas was my Systems professor at Ohio State and the way she presented her passion for assembly, reverse engineering, and security made me view my studies from a new perspective. She went well beyond a syllabus and crafted unique opportunities for us to get our hands dirty reverse engineering binaries.

Steve Romig at the time taught the only project-based information security course at Ohio State. Steve's perspective from his day job in the industry resulted in an environment where I could experience a variety of disciplines within infosec in a very hands-on manner.

Our very own John Toterhi is another individual I'd have to credit. John showed up after Steve's classes and helped build a dedicated capture the flag group at OSU on his own time. John’s experience and insights really helped fan the flames and solidify infosec as a path for me to follow.

What is your mother's maiden name?

<img \x00src=x onerror="alert(1)">

What city did you meet your spouse in?

The Shire

What was your high school mascot?

Little Bobby Tables

LinkedIn Twitter GitHub

HTH Discord: syn-ack-zack

Jennifer LuPiba

Director of Marketing

What year did you get your first shell?

Yeah – you’re funny! I’m in marketing so … ; but once I had to demo an install of Microsoft SQL Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux with a bash script – does that count?!

What do you do when you are not "hacking"?

I’ve got 4 almost 5 kids, so… what do you think I’m doing when not working?

What is your favorite security topic/area?

Defensive training and penetration testing – I mean the bad guys and gals always have the better stories!

What do you think is the most underrated hacker movie that isn't technically a hacker movie?

1984’s Cloak & Dagger with Jack Flack and that creepy old lady with the white gloves and six fingers!!!

Who are the top three people you would attribute success to in your career?

I just didn’t feel like filling this one out…not that I attribute my success to me alone, far from it. But this question requires more words than I care to write.

What is your mother's maiden name?

Eleese Lester, that creepy old lady with the white gloves and six fingers!!!

What city did you meet your spouse in?

Whichever city Cloak & Dagger was in!

What was your high school mascot?

Jack Flack

LinkedIn Twitter

HTH Discord: Juno5