It’s time to take the wraps off what a few of us have been planning for BSides Las Vegas. We are returning again to do an I Am The Cavalry track on Tuesday, August 4th. This year it’ll be a different room, a different format, and a different objective. Like last year, you’ll be able to drop in and drop out of any of the sessions throughout the day.

Our objective this year is to generate discrete initiatives that will make the most difference the quickest. We will spend the morning introducing the concepts, giving background, and priming participants for the afternoon sessions. Those sessions will be focused on two pillars – automotive and medical devices – where there is both popular interest and multi-stakeholder inertia.

To kick off each of the automotive and medical device sessions, we will first give an overview of the current landscape and progress towards cyber safety. This will be a revealing talk where we can give more details of what has been happening around the industries, how the security community has engaged, and what the road ahead looks like. There will be surprises and unveilings.

During each session, we want to identify 2-3 good projects with strong support and leadership. We will ideate individual initiatives, then break into groups to flesh those out, identify outcomes, constraints, output, and methods. Each team will present their ideas in a lightning talk and facilitate a short discussion. After the ideas are laid out, participants will elect to get involved in making them come to reality, leaders will emerge to manage the initiatives, and others will pledge to support their actions.

People with subject matter knowledge will be available to guide the hand of those ideas to help others avoid mistakes and replicate what has worked. It’s important to capture not just knowledge in Auto and Medical, but also in public policy, media, legal, insurance, and other stakeholder domains. To make sure that coming out of that room, those initiatives have the best chance for success.

We kick off the day after the BSides Las Vegas Keynote. You won’t want to miss that one.

11:00-11:30 Session Introduction and Overview Josh Corman & Nick Percoco
We will provide a brief overview of I Am The Cavalry, as well as outline the day’s activities. Participants who have yet to be introduced to the initiative will be; those who are very familiar will be updated on activities and progress over the last year. And we will describe the vision for the day’s activities. Even if you miss this first session, you can join for any of the others.

11:30-12:00 Hack the Future Keren Elazari
This talk is about inspiring hackers to be the change agents of the future, with practical things hackers can do to create a positive impact. It’s about being a good hacker while staying out of jail and making the world a better place – with things like community outreach projects, crypto parties, voluntary red teams, responsible disclosure and stopping the spread of FUD.

12:00-12:30 Leading in a “Do”-ocracy Chris Nickerson
A man whose talks need no abstract… Prepare to be informed and inspired, the way only Nickerson can do.

12:30-14:00 Lunch

14:00-14:30 State of Medical Device Cyber Safety Scott Erven & Beau Woods
Beau and Scott will give an overview of the medical device space and talk about the things that have gone on in the past year. This will be a revealing talk where we can give more details of what has been happening around the industries, how the security community has engaged, and what the road ahead looks like. They’ll also introduce and walk through the Medical Device workshop.

14:30-16:00 How can we ensure safer Medical Devices? (Workshop)
The goal is to identify 2-3 good projects with strong support and leadership in the Medical Device area. We will ideate individual initiatives, then break into groups to flesh those out, identify outcomes, constraints, output, and methods. Each team will present their ideas in a lightning talk and facilitate a short discussion. After the ideas are laid out, participants will elect to get involved in making them come to reality, leaders will emerge to manage the initiatives, and others will pledge to support their actions.

16:00-17:00 Break

17:00-17:30 State of Automotive Cyber Safety Josh Corman & Craig Smith
Josh and Craig will give an overview of the Automotive space and talk about the things that have gone on in the past year. This will be a revealing talk where we can give more details of what has been happening around the industries, how the security community has engaged, and what the road ahead looks like. They’ll also introduce and walk through the Automotive workshop.

17:30-19:00 How can we ensure safer Automobiles? (Workshop)
The goal is to identify 2-3 good projects with strong support and leadership in the Automotive area. We will ideate individual initiatives, then break into groups to flesh those out, identify outcomes, constraints, output, and methods. Each team will present their ideas in a lightning talk and facilitate a short discussion. After the ideas are laid out, participants will elect to get involved in making them come to reality, leaders will emerge to manage the initiatives, and others will pledge to support their actions.