On this week’s episode of Security Nation, we had the pleasure of speaking with John Strand, CEO of BlackHills Information Security, a company that specializes in penetration testing, red teaming, and threat hunting. In this interview, we discuss how his team works remotely, how they created a virtual event in just three days amid the COVID-19 pandemic and now teach others to do the same, and his predictions on the future of events.
Here is our recap of the podcast:
Working from home as the norm
Since the beginning, almost all of the company’s work and workforce has been remote. During John’s tenure working for other organizations, he and his team were required to do onsite penetration testing. As his trips wore on, John realized he didn’t do his best work when he traveled and began to dislike onsite pen testing. When he started BlackHills Information Security (BHIS), they intentionally made it so they did not have to travel to effectively do pen testing. All of their employees were fully on board, enjoying the fact that they could stay home with their family, avoid traveling on airplanes, and so on. Today, this has become the norm for everyone.
Shifting their in-person conferences to virtual
BHIS runs two conferences: Wild West Hacking Fest in San Diego and a hacking fest in Deadwood, South Dakota, where the company is located. Earlier this year, John was flying home from RSA and BSides San Diego at the time the news of COVID-19 began to pick up in the U.S. He decid ..
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