We have finally recovered from RVAsec and wanted to bring you a quick recap!  We had over 450 attendees for this year and it was great to see everyone back in person!

What we were thrilled to bring you:

• Awesome keynote by Chris Tignor.
• Great speakers with great topics!
• Breakfast, lunch, coffee & snack breaks sponsored by Segra and World Wide Technology.
• Amazing badge from Hack.RVA.
• Capture The Flag  sponsored by SafeBreach & run by MetaCTF.
• After party with live music on Thursday sponsored by Risk Based Security and GuidePoint Security.
• Post-con reception sponsored by Corelight with beverages (and more food) on Friday.
• Awesome dinner for our speakers sponsored by Armis.
• Wifi Sponsored by AIS Network.

Thank you to everyone that took the time to provide us feedback.  We worked long and hard for several months to ensure that we are able to provide the safest conference possible and follow CDC and Virginia COVID recommendations.  We are pleased to report that while we were able to deliver that, in order to make that happen we modified the event from previous years.  We are very hopeful that we can get back to a “normal” RVAsec in 2022.

What to expect in the coming weeks:

• Videos will be posted to the RVAsec YouTube channel.
• CFP and Ticket sales will open for RVAsec 11

Thanks again to all our our speakers, sponsors and volunteers!

Next year, RVAsec will be June 16-17, 2022 at the Omni Hotel Richmond.

See you next year.

Jake and Chris

Anthony is just someone that has a passion for helping people and shares that passion through cybersecurity.

Why I Love Purple Teams, Even Though They Don’t Exist

The industry of Cybersecurity has grown over the years. As a group driven by innovation, we look to solve our own problems. We have mimicked the military by choosing to have blue and red teams but have also developed a new team, the Purple Team. If you asked a cybersecurity professional what a Purple Team is, they might respond with a simple “it’s red and blue combined.” This talk is questioning what a Purple Team is by breaking the problem down to a first principle. Once we have the first principle, we’ll open it up to see if this is really a unique situation to our industry or was it solved already.

Come see Anthony at RVAsec! Register now.

Richard Thayer has been in IT for over 35 years. From his early beginnings of working on IBM’s 8086XT system(s), to designing robust security architectures for Fortune 50 companies; Mr. Thayer has consulted for vertical markets within Finance, Energy, Manufacturing, Retail, Insurance, and DoD & Civilian Government.

Three Worlds of Application / Cloud Security

Application / Cloud security goes hand in hand in our ever-changing IT environments.  With the cloud actually “being” an application, we need to look at three areas of Application Security that encompass what goes into the cloud, the cloud itself, and how to secure its communications and workloads.

This discussion will start to the extreme “far left” in the security lifecycle, all the way to the developer’s keyboards. Then we will explore the DevSecOps security process, based on the “Defense in Depth” theory of security. Then finally we will address the workloads in the cloud, with some of the public cloud’s native functionality to protect itself, and how we can use additional toolsets to enhance them.

Companies need to identify not only the tools, but when to use them, and how to automate them.

Come see Richard at RVAsec! Register now.

John Behen is the Vulnerability Management Lead for Newport News Shipbuilding, in Newport News, VA. He has been an IT professional for 25 years at a diverse range of companies including Newport News Shipbuilding, The Martin Agency and Procter & Gamble. Outside of Information Security, John enjoys spending time with his family and competitive offshore yacht racing.

5.4 Million Vulnerabilities and Counting…

More and more, Vulnerability Management is becoming a central function in an organization’s defensive posture. Along with that realization, companies are discovering that there is no central framework for implementing a Vulnerability Management program. Facing millions of vulnerabilities, we implemented a prototype vulnerability management framework that can be applied to any organization, regardless of size. This presentation will take attendees through the six core Vulnerability Management domains, with tips on how this framework can be applied to other organizations.

Come see John at RVAsec! Register now.

Karl is a business technologist through experience and a private pilot by fascination. While spending most work days in “the Cloud”, weekends are often spent flying below the cloud deck.

Network Assessments: Cybersecurity, Quackery and Fraud

Network assessments are valuable tools to provide insight into infrastructure. It is no surprise they are used to close 7 out of 10 new business opportunities for managed service providers. Their benefit to business is often an illusion.  This talk covers the basics of assessments, how they are misused, and what companies of all sizes should be doing instead.

Come see Karl at RVAsec! Register now.

Caleb Mattingly is the CEO and founder of Secure Cloud Innovations, a cybersecurity consulting firm. Prior to starting SCI, Caleb worked in defense contracting supporting the Army, Navy, Air Force, and DISA. Caleb’s highest level of education is a MS in Cybersecurity from Liberty University.

Bake Security Into Your Infrastructure-as-Code

Baking takes time, dedication, and effort throughout the entire process. If you leave an ingredient or step out, you risk ruining the entire cake. Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) is surprisingly similar. When you leave security out of your IaC process, you risk ruining what you worked so hard to create. In this talk we’ll dive into some best practice options for securing your IaC and explain the risks when you don’t.

Come see Caleb at RVAsec! Register now.