Once again here to say - UNLIMITED PTO IS A SCAM - and it’s cruel and lazy.
It counts on the fact that employees don’t understand that Paid Time Off is part of their total compensation package. And any UNUSED PTO is same as CASH in many states.
In CA, for example, it’s
Spent the morning giving 20min crash courses in Cybersecurity career paths to Elementary school students.
My sessions were all FULL of kids and they had amazing questions. I used Zootopia to illustrate the Blue and Red teams at a high level and we chatted about roles & skills 🦊
@mikepsecuritee
I recently held up a USB to a classroom of elementary school kids and asked them if they would help me figure out who it belonged to and stick it in one of their computers. The entire room said no.
#TinyTear
So proud 🥲
Over 2 years since my
@DarknetDiaries
ep premiered with the story of my 2019 DEF CON Black Badge win … and I still receive messages weekly from folks who are finding it for the first time and want to tell me what it meant to them 🥹
🥲🖤👏🏼🥹 I could not begin to describe how honored I am to support such a worthy cause and a selfless team -
@VipinSangwann
you are an incredible inspiration and your generosity of time, effort, and spirit is truly incredible and humbling 🖤 Namaste 🙏🏼
1000 GIRLS HELPED🎉🥹
From Jan 2022 to Mar 2023, we reached and delivered hope in 45+ remote villages, 13+ mountain schools spread across more than 10 districts of
#Nepal
.
Thank you everyone for believing in my &
@LaurenBiermann
's project, YOU ALL ARE WALKING WITH US🚶🏻🏔️🤝🏻💝
1/4
The number of my former coworkers coming out to quietly support the “Unlimited PTO is Scam” convo is telling.
I see you!
Reasons it’s a ‘scam’:
1. No payout to employees upon termination for any unused time where required by law
2. Fosters resentment between coworkers and
I’ve decided not to renew, or pursue an additional EC-Council CompTIA certifications.
I’m letting them expire.
I have never learned anything but how to hack a test in pursuit of these and similar certifications.
And I absolutely hate Pearson VUE.
To be clear:
I used to do market intelligence and staffing consulting work for a mega global staffing company.
I helped organizations figure out how to pay people less money - that was my job - Unlimited PTO was a common recommendation.
I have been doing this for over 20 years and it’s improved my life in so many ways! 🧦
🧦 I get visibly upset when people gift me socks that don’t conform with the standard lol but I just donate them.
I hate unnecessary decisions and wasted time hunting for the other sock. 🧦
Since my episode of
@DarknetDiaries
was “so awful” people had to turn it off before the end… (please see Reddit show notes)
What should I share on the podcast I am recording today with
@DistortionCyber
?
Please, do tell.
🥹🥹🥹
This is why I tolerate the trolls.
THIS is why I do this.
THIS IS WHY.
I also do elementary school career days. Because it begins in elementary school and if we wait until high school, we may be too late.
I was messing with an IBM clone in MS-DOS at age 9.
@AletheDenis
@DarknetDiaries
@DistortionCyber
I'm a high school teacher, and talked about your episode in class after it posted. Three 15-year old girls were so into my little synposis, they searched it out separately and later shared their favorite details from your story. Don't you even joke about "awful", ya hear?
I will never stop telling the story about how
@jaysonstreet
and I met between elevators in a hallway at
@defcon
and he helped me stop overthinking everything for my vishing contest pretexts by just telling me to “get in the booth and lie”
When after 6 years and exceeding the absolute shit out of any expectations taking on everything I was asked and more, I wasn’t eligible to have my title adjusted (and therefore my comp) to match the role I was doing. There was always a manufactured barrier. Despite the fact that
Where can you find me, and stickers, at
@defcon
?
Here’s your best chances to catch me.
Thursday, I will be in and out of DEFCON GROUPS Community room in Harrah’s throughout the day.
I spent $300 on a shredder just so I could avoid opening the credit card pre-approval letters before shoving them to their doom.
Actual footage of me and the shredder as it eats credit line pre-approval envelopes stuffed with cardboard and plastic demo credit cards…. 💳
"Vishing is surprisingly easy right now in terms of people not caring in cyber. Employees are so burnt out and organizations are loading up work combined with alert fatigue....makes things extremely easy," they said.
If you’re part of a DEFCON GROUP - Please ensure that current POC has received an email from the
@defcon
Groups Board RE: Roll Call.
We are attempting to get organized & we need your help! If your groups didn’t get an email - please reach out!
All
@defcongroups
must respond
All my
#DC31
stickers are in my IG stories 🖤
But this one (below), will always be my favorite one that I’ve handed out at
@defcon
- the sticker that started
#StalkMeForStickers
over 6 years ago.
🥹🦄🖤
@MrRobotBadge
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
Presented at elementary school career day today.
A 4th grader told my 4th grader that my presentation was dumb, and that I’m dumb.
My 6th grader is extremely offended and angry for me.
I couldn’t care less what this kid says.
He’s the type to try to get a reaction from my
@GrahamHelton3
@IanColdwater
We had cats named
Cisco
Pixel
and SCSI
SCSI was just “Scuzzy” on the vet records, cause 🤷🏼♀️ after the 4th attempt to explain it I gave up.
He was an orange maniac lol
Watching your brilliant ideas die, with that annual domain registration notice when it’s been a year already …and you can’t bring yourself to renew it, because you did literally NOTHING once you registered the domain.
It’s kinda embarrassing how many great
@DarknetDiaries
episodes I have missed 😅 Catching up this weekend while I washed literally over 400 eggs…
This one was really great to hear,
@Jhaddix
!
I am NEVER doing business with
@CompTIA
EVER AGAIN. And I will NOT be renewing ANY of my certifications.
Absolutely unbelievably HORRIBLE experience with them this morning. And I have the chat transcript to prove it.
Dear
@CompTIA
…
A man has been arrested for allegedly stealing $300,000 worth of copper piping and other metals from the Fontainebleau Las Vegas while posing as a maintenance worker.
I wondered for a long time how people with opinions on the internet survive and why they choose to keep having opinions and engaging in discord with people.
Seems exhausting.
This weekend I decided to have an opinion. Just to try it out. It is exhausting. And stressful. But
“Once an adversary has obtained initial access to restricted areas, the likelihood that they will be challenged once inside diminishes dramatically as most people would assume they had been granted access appropriately prior to being allowed to enter any sensitive or restricted
“Actions speak louder than fancy PR campaigns, and if a company is serious about supporting women, there needs to be a top-down buy-in from everyone. Speak up for women and take action with women’s ideas, then hire people who support this belief system.”
@sherrod_im
Which I love for you! And I know you advocate for that freedom which I think is fantastic. I am seeing that most people responding to this with “I love it” are super confident and experienced leaders who are comfortable saying “hey I’m gone, and here are my boundaries, deal with
So
@BHinfoSecurity
- a friend’s kiddo found my Backdoors and Breaches consultant card in their parent’s desk and asked to use it as a Pokémon card…
It’s been decided that I am a Fire Type.
@debthedeb
@BanjoCrashland
#BHIS
My name is Alethe, and I approve this message.
THIS SATURDAY there's a party featuring some of the Artists who didn't get to play due to the Forum evac! Starts at 12:00PM PACIFIC (3EDT) - on . Miss Jackalope starts it off: . TY
@syntax976
+ Luna!
#DEFCON
#DEFCON31
#DC31
Just threw away over 255 hours of Animal Crossing to start over with a new island. Zero regrets.
My kids are so mad because they used to just pillage my island, and leave their sunglasses all over the place. So basically, same as real life.
My most favorite
@defcon
hoodie has zipped it’s last zip. 🥺🥺🥺
It’s now a cardigan - This
#Defcon24
T-shirt material full-zip has been my favorite hoodie for ~7 years.
Hoping to get one like this from the swag shop this year *hint hint* (ahem, it’s from CANVAS cough cough)
Every kid really does know social engineering tricks.
Like the tiny manipulator who’s been trying to get me to let them go swimming since 6am. 🤨
This interview has some parts of my journey, but more meaty stuff about what I’m up to right now towards the end.
On the subject of PTO - I advocate four buckets of time for hourly employees - salary is another story. This is what I do with employees who work 30+ hours per week.
PSL - PAID SICK LEAVE - Minimum of the state requirement (eg. 40 hours/5 days per year in California) but
First set of Proofs for this years
@defcon
sticker design just landed on my desk … holy shit. You are all gonna love these.
Like. My designers are incredible. Just badass artists.
Can’t wait to share once they are submitted for
@InfosecStickers
contest closer to con. 😍🥰😍
Got a lot of the holes and gouges around the house fixed.
I’m repainting my kitchen.
Something that’s been on my to do list for like 8 years.
And I am ONLY repainting my kitchen because I am AVOIDING another task that is far less interesting.
What are five topics you can talk about for 30 minutes with zero prep?
Mine:
1️⃣ Backyard Chickens 🐓(Allll the minutes. No prep.)
2️⃣ Global Workforce Market Insights
3️⃣ Influence vs Manipulation, how Social Engineering is a pit of snakes
4️⃣ Good Girls Guide to Bad Boyfriends
What are five topics you can talk about for 30 minutes with zero prep?
Mine are:
1. Which
@DarknetDiaries
eps are best
2. There’s no such thing as a family coat of arms
3. I don’t understand crypto but boy it sure is used in crime a lot
4. Star Wars
5. Basic digital forensics
I’ve decided not to renew, or pursue an additional EC-Council CompTIA certifications.
I’m letting them expire.
I have never learned anything but how to hack a test in pursuit of these and similar certifications.
And I absolutely hate Pearson VUE.
The movie night offering this week is 1995's 'Johnny Mnemonic'. We celebrate this film for its very DC32-appropriate Y2K vibes. We apologize in advance for some of the line readings. Join us in lovingly re-considering one of the best 'there's a hard drive in my head' films of the
Pretty sure I’ve discovered that it’s at the five hour mark of straight conference calls where my brain starts to feel like it’s about to melt out of my ears…
Where can you find me, and stickers, at
@defcon
?
Here’s your best chances to catch me.
Thursday, I will be in and out of DEFCON GROUPS Community room in Harrah’s throughout the day.
2021 - 🥇
2022 - 🥈
2023 - 🥈
2024 - Challenge accepted 😈
All kidding aside, THANK YOU
@InfosecStickers
! You’ll always be my favorite contest at
@defcon
- shh, don’t tell the other contests. It’s a secret.
Congrats, Chad! I legit giggles out loud when I saw yours! 👽
☀️ Ahead of Hacker Summer Camp, here are the winners of this year’s Sticker Design Contest…
🥇 The winner: Chad Deschane (We hacked humans before it was cool)
🥈Runner-up: Alethe Denis
@AletheDenis
(Will hack for Clam Chowder)
Congratulations to them and all the other entries!
Adding to my pin collection with
@wbm312
is always fun - the pay phone? AYFKM!? 🤩🤩🤩 It is perfect.
#MaxHeadroomDay
#NeverForget
Whitney 🖤 - Thanks for the Category and lolz at
@HackerJeopardy
this year, and the sweet note! 🗒️ 🥹 💾
I have a new podcast episode coming out on Monday and I am apprehensive af. I disclose a lot more than I ever have previously and I am fairly concerned that perhaps it was too much.
Like being an unwitting teen accomplice on three-letter-agency missions in African countries.