SecureCIO Chicago and John McAfee

So I got invited to this thing. http://chicago.securecio.com/cm I wasn't sure how or why and I almost deleted it until I noticed John McAfee was speaking. Then I clicked the hell yes button. I figured either the people running this thing must be pretty cool or totally clueless and were going to freak out and either way this was going to be fun. So I went. It was a bit odd and slow for me at first. The host started with a urban legend a few seconds on snoops on my phone confirmed my hunch. Not long after that he said to use the news about big attacks to scare the crap out of our leaders to get more budget. I don't think he was kidding, maybe half kidding. Another speaker worked for a secure email company and talked about how his product helped secure email, joy. I was starting to wonder what I got myself into. Then at the break I found an old friend of mine and that was good. Then I saw Wendy's blue hair and I recognized her from B-Sides Vegas and I knew McAfee must be close and he was, playing the piano. I went and hung out with him as much as I could. The cool kids all came out to talk to him and as long as I was close to him I found it easier to talk to other people, these were my people. After his talk @minossec came over to say hi to him and it was cool to he him again too. It turns out the director of this thing is a cool guy and has worked with John McAfee before and like me was tying to hang out with him as much as possible and it was nice meeting him too. Finally John McAfee spoke. It was a good talk, different tone than B-Sides he knew the audience was different. Mostly he talked about phone insecurity and how we are all idiots for letting our flashlight app or bible reading app access our microphone and record us without telling us and how he has a new Android app which tells you when that happens and if you try it you will see how stupid you have been and how you are being spied on. I ended up at the bar there but bailed before it got too late and somehow totally forgot to eat dinner. McAfee left shortly after his talk unfortunately but it was great seeing him and hearing him speak.

Like I said, the person running this thing seems cool. Most of the more technical security leaders I know weren't there. We should try to fix that going forward, this thing has potential if we can get the right people to start showing up by mixing a bunch of burbsec/chisec folks in.