Bay Area Hacker's Association / Bay Area Security Enthusiasts

Calendar

ALL OUR EVENT NOTICES ARE BELONG TO GOOGLE

A Clarification on the Term "Hacker"

I probably don't have to point this out to the digerati, but for all those potential employers out there, we don't consider "hacker" to mean "criminal". We welcome all who seek knowledge about computer security, whether offensive or defensive, white or black hat, or anything in between.

Well, today we have to look at these hackers and see that even though they do some malicious things, they have a knowledge that's extremely important to our security, to our safety, and to our ability to confront terror. I think government's real challenge right now is to bring them on the inside to help train our own information specialists to work to track terrorist organizations. Frankly, we could own all the master hackers in our country for half the price of an advanced fighter jet. So we're not talking about much cost; we need to recruit these people, we need to use them, they're Americans too, they're patriots too - they can help win this war on terror. They count more than a carrier battle group, quite frankly.
-- John Arquilla, author of Networks and Netwars

Mailing List

Currently we have formed a mailing list to discuss things. This is currently the primary source of information about the group.

Logistics

We meet at Noisebridge, near 16th St and Mission BART, the 2nd Sunday of every month, at 2pm, and it generally lasts several hours.

Parking is tough in Mission District; there is a garage on Hoff St. between 16th and 17th. Make sure to leave 15 minutes to find a spot otherwise. It is no longer free on Sundays.

Noisebridge can be difficult to find, so look for the round noisebridge logo on a gated door to the left of a fruit market with a yellow awning.

We meet up near the front of the building, where the drop-down projector screen is located. If you need directions, ask around.

Note that occasionally there are cancellations; you should check the mlist or google calendar before going!

Related Groups

• I formed the Bay Area Security Presentations mailing list to help reduce the cost of arranging speakers or finding venues.
• I also formed a speakers mailing list to ping people who have offered to speak.
• There is a Reddit for SF/BA security
• We differ from these groups in that we are presentation and learning oriented, rather than primarily social.
  • SiliSec
  • BaySec
  • Berksec
  • HoodSec
  • SouthBaySec
  It's not clear that the last two are active, since they don't seem to have much of a web presence.
• We differ from OWASP Bay Area in that we discuss more than just web security.
• There is a very similar group, DC650 (DEFCON Silicon Valley).
• There is also the San Francisco 2600 group.
• There is also a West Coast Hackers group.
• And there's a SF Bay ISSA group.
• North Bay and Seattle have Negative 9, which also appears similar to ours.
• We are loosely based on Austin Hackers Anonymous, of which I was once a member; however, unlike AHA, I do not want to require people to have to present in order to attend.

Quasi-Related Bay Area User Groups

• Good gravy, there's a ton of ton of Bay Area Linux Events.
• Don't forget about the SF OpenBSD User Group, though it appears to have discontinued due to lack of interest.
• San Francisco Perl Mongers
• Bay Area Python Interest Group
• There is a Super Happy Dev House social & coding meetup periodically.
• TOOOL Northern California unofficial home page

Bay Area Events

• There is a BayThreat conference every year.
• There is a B Sides Bay conference every so often (last one: Dec 2009).
• There is a BSidesSF event Im heavily involved with.
• SF/BA security community links

Hacker Spaces

• Noisebridge, SF hackerspace where we will be holding our first meeting
• ACE Monster Toys, a soon-to-be East Bay hackerspace
• Hacker Dojo, Mountain View, where DC650 meets

Charter

I created this group to give those interested in learning and teaching about security topics a forum to do so. This is mostly about computer, application, network security and cryptology, but I don't see a reason to strictly limit discussion to those topics. For example, there may be widespread interest in anonymity, privacy, relevant legislation, physical security, locksport, and so on.

Philosophy

• I encourage everyone to exercise their own ethical judgements on what they want to disclose and discuss. I do not presume to make those choices for others.
• I also want to encourage everyone to avoid an "elitist" attitude, recognizing that we were all noobs once. What is important is not how much you know, but how eager you are to learn, and share what you know. Enthusiasm counts a lot.
• After reading A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy, I've realized that some kind of order may be necessary to maintain the utility of the group. However, I also want to strongly encourage participation and a sense of belonging, so I want to avoid intervention as much as possible.
• Security experts tend to be very smart, but very cynical. Try to remain polite.
• Recipe for a Successful Linux User Group

Current Issues Under Discussion:

• supplementary sources; wiki or blog for links to presenter's notes

Warning - Protected Computer

Do Not Click On This Link

About The Logo

The first rule of BAHA is, you don't talk about the logo.