By Mr. Brian Hostetler and Capt Jeremy Kulikowski, AFIT EWI Fellows
 

Mr. Brian Hostetler, an Air Force civilian, and Captain Jeremy Kulikowski are current fellows in the AFIT Education within Industry program. They are paired with the SANS Institute/Counter Hack Challenges LLC, whose portfolio includes Netwars, Cyber City, and Penetration testing for DoD and Fortune 500 Companies.

In a consolidated effort to obtain innovative ideas for the SANS 2018 Holiday Hack Challenge (HHC) and future products, Hostetler and Capt. Kulikowski traveled to Louisville, KY for the 8th annual DerbyCon Hacker conference as members of the SANS Institute’s Counter Hack Team.

At the annual DerbyCon Hacker conference, leaders in the industry shared their experiences in a constantly evolving field, thoughts on the direction INFOSEC is heading, as well as looking at the current state of cyber security. The panelists shared war stories, how they got started in the field, thoughts on failure, and fielded questions from a captive audience.

“This was the first InfoSec conference that I have ever attended,” said Capt Kulikowski.  “I was completely blown away at the amount of content presented and the amazing professionals that are part of the InfoSec community.  Attending DerbyCon opened my eyes to an entirely new world for cyber security that I had not been exposed during my time in the Air Force. I highly recommend anyone attend events like these to learn; I am putting conferences like this on my calendar to grow my knowledge to use toward Air Force systems.”

Information security researchers from around the world shared their latest breakthroughs and exploits for cyber security professionals to sharpen their skills.  The three day line up included talks about Russian Cyber Propaganda, Amazon Cloud Service exploitations, crash course on buffer overflow attacks, hacking mobile applications, intercepting Wi-Fi traffic, off grid comms, utilizing Google to take down grids, using cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox for C2 channels, social engineering attacks to gain access, and much more.

“Derbycon was also my first Infosec conference. The Infosec space is rapidly evolving.  Conferences such as these enable Airman to stay abreast of the latest breakthroughs, forge relationships with industry, and provides exposure to new concepts that would otherwise be unattainable in the Air Force cyber community alone,” said Hostetler.  “After attending this event, my eyes are opened to endless opportunities to network and expand my skills to add a tremendous amount of value to the Air Force cyber community.”

Key takeways from the conference include an understanding of how company culture surrounding INFOSEC seems to be evolving, yet corners are routinely cut in the interest of profit, or to release the next product in a prescribed timeline that will increase their bottom line.

Hacking is about leveraging knowledge and creativity to forge a pathway towards a given objective. Often times, though not exclusively, this involves use of computer systems. To stay ahead of our adversaries in cyberspace, our Airman must embrace and integrate this way of thinking into our tactical, operational, and strategic planning cycles.

Facilitating change starts with increasing training budgets to enable high performing cyberspace airman to attend security conferences such as DerbyCon. Furthermore, providing cyberspace operators freedom to research, develop, and test the latest tools to understand how they work, and how they can be integrated.

EWI, a program sponsored by SAF/AQH and managed by the Air Force Institute of Technology, is a highly selective, competitive non-degree educational assignment within an industry related to the fellow’s career field. 

The program is designed to develop qualities and abilities in selected officers and civilians necessary for effective management, professional, and technical leadership; and to provide an understanding of organizational structure, management methods, and technologies of modern industry.  By studying the best practices of industry, students are able to bring new knowledge, understanding, and empathy back into the Air Force to improve its processes.  In turn, the company benefits by receiving the fellow’s experience and perspective.