RINGZER0 BLOG

# Women in Cybersecurity ## A Tribute to Hedy Lamarr #### 2 February 2023 - Cherry

Hedy Lamarr, born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in 1914 in Vienna, Austria, was an actress and inventor. She is best known for her work in Hollywood during the Golden Age of Cinema, but her impact on the field of cybersecurity is often overlooked. Lamarr's contributions to technology have had a lasting impact on the world and continue to shape the way we think about communication and security. Lamarr was a woman ahead of her time and her curiosity and innovative spirit led her to co-invent a new form of communication technology during World War II. With the help of composer George Antheil, she developed a device that would spread radio signals across multiple frequencies, making it difficult for enemies to jam them. This idea was later patented and became the basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology, including Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth; earning her the posthumous title of “the mother of WiFi”. In the years following the war, Lamarr's invention was largely forgotten, but her legacy continued to influence the field of cybersecurity. Spread-spectrum communication technology provides a secure and reliable way to transmit data wirelessly, and its importance cannot be overstated. It is used in numerous applications, including military communications, financial transactions, and everyday activities like browsing the internet or sending text messages. In conclusion, Hedy Lamarr was not only a talented actress but also a visionary inventor who helped lay the foundation for modern wireless communication. Her work serves as a reminder of the important role that women have played and continue to play in shaping the technological landscape, and as an inspiration to future generations of innovators, encouraging them to pursue their passions and push the boundaries of what is possible. ## Our Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship Fund Inspired by Hedy Lamarr, we aim to encourage and support female students and professionals who are interested in pursuing careers in cybersecurity. We believe promoting diversity and equality in the field is critical to its growth and success. Despite the increasing demand for cybersecurity professionals, the industry still faces a significant gender gap, with women underrepresented in technical and leadership positions. By removing financial barriers and providing access to educational and professional development opportunities, we hope to create a more inclusive and diverse workforce, where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential and make a meaningful impact in the field. We first launched the Ringzer0 Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship Fund in June 2020. The scholarship has since become a recurring tradition. We have worked together with various generous sponsors over the years - and Ringzer0 matches every contribution made to the scholarship fund, thereby doubling its reach. The success story so far - the scholarship has supported 26 women candidates, selected from 309 applications over a span of 4 training events. This year, the scholarship Returns to RETURN23XPLOIT, with support from Thinkst Canary, Eclypsium, and Joerg & Abhilasha Spantzel. The scholarship gives you an entry ticket to the training of your choice at no charge. If you are interested in applying for a scholarship, please fill out this form and submit it to us no later than February 5th, 2023, at 8:00 PM EST. Recipients will be notified on February 8, 2023.

APPLY HERE

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the scholarship, please do not hesitate to send an email to info@ringzero.training. Warm regards, Cherry

# The Evolution of Ringzer0: ## A Look into the Past, Present, and Future #### 12 January 2023 - Saumil Shah

First of all - happy new year, dear reader! 2023 kicks off Ringzer0’s 5th calendar year. We are currently gearing up for our 7th event, RETURN23XPLOIT (happening this February!), and we wanted to share with you our journey, from the dream that started it all, to here - and hopefully far into the future. Ringzer0 Training has one fundamental goal - to deliver the BEST offensive cybersecurity trainings worldwide. In order to reach that goal, we have three core values that we believe sets Ringzer0 apart from the rest: **1. READILY APPLICABLE.** Concepts and skills learned during training are directly applicable in the real world, immediately upon completion. All the necessary tools and techniques are battle tested in real world scenarios, not just in simulated environments. This is what makes Ringzer0’s trainings laser focused. **2. CAREFULLY CURATED.** Our students have a high appetite for learning, yet often lack time to pursue their studies. Because of this, every training has a sharp syllabus - one that makes for the shortest path towards skill acquisition. All lab environments are tested and ready to go before the training starts, as class time should not be squandered on setup. All our classes are hands-on, with meticulously selected examples and exercises. Ringzer0 instructors bring several innovative teaching methods and tools to make for efficiency in training delivery. In short, a Ringzer0 training compresses roughly four months of self learning within a short span of four days, without loss of quality. **3. DEPTH OVER BREADTH.** Ringzer0 trainings focus on a single domain of upskilling. We believe in gearing up our students towards domain proficiency, and empower them for further research from where the class leaves off. Ringzer0 trainings are intense. The experience, as described by students, has been akin to drinking out of a fire hose. One may emerge physically tired, but mentally enlightened! ### A Brief History of Ringzer0: It all started with a crazy idea in 2018. I had been an instructor for 18 years, and was ready to take my passion for teaching to the next level. What better way to share my passion with the world than to start my own infosec training event? And what better time and place than at the largest gathering of hackers and researchers from all over the world? Summer in Las Vegas - that’s when and where we wanted to be. #### 2019: The Beginning Ringzer0’s debut was a humble, but delightful event held at the Excalibur, Las Vegas. We sought our place at Hacker Summer Camp, under the Vegas sun. It was a small yet successful event - 6 specialised trainings, 8 instructors, and 4 days of, as we’ve been told by happy students, some of the best food and beverages ever experienced in training events! We knew we were on the right track.

#### 2020: The Pivot The world came to a standstill. Ringzer0 wasn’t going to be locked down, though. We had only just made our mark on the world, and we were not ready to go gently into that good night. We had to think fast, pivot quickly, and execute our transition from in-person to virtual in record time. To provide a virtual training experience as engaging as an in-person training was already going to be a tough challenge, but we strove to make our virtual training even BETTER than in-person training. This presented us with an interesting conundrum. Our students are distributed across global timezones. Scheduling 8 hour virtual sessions over 4 consecutive days would never work for them - while the hacker community is known for being night-owls, running your training in the late hours of the night would be a bridge too far. Furthermore, the world was quickly developing “Zoom burnout”. This called for a creative solution - how to reinvent virtual training?

#### Intermission - Reinventing Virtual Training: behind the scenes The first step was to put ourselves in the students’ shoes. Factors such as timezones, optimising screen time, and effective remote communication had to be kept at the forefront. Long lectures would contribute to zoom burnout, so instead we decided to split up 4 days of long lectures into several short sessions spread over the course of a week. Schedules were designed to allow students to work on exercises at their convenience, not in specific timeslots. We had to think of every obstacle that might pop up, keeping a smooth training experience at the core of it all. An enthusiastic crew of volunteers came to our aid - our Teaching Assistants. Along with the back end crew, our TAs worked tirelessly with instructors to rehearse this new paradigm of virtual training, ensuring that neither content quality nor student experience was diluted. We prepared playbooks. We conducted multiple briefing sessions. Each class became its own community, with students, TAs, and instructors working in collaboration over an intense two week period in August 2020. Students who couldn’t join the live lectures could access recordings in near real time, allowing them to catch up with the day’s sessions and exercises. Our efforts paid off. More than 75% of our students, across 16 different trainings, stated that Ringzer0's virtual experience was as good as, if not better than, an in-person training. We celebrated! Ringzer0's Reinvented Virtual Training survived the onset of the pandemic! #### 2021: Taking Root As the world waited for a way out of the pandemic, Ringzer0 held two more virtual events. UNLOCK2021 saw 10 trainings held in January and February. VirtualVegas 2021 delivered double that - 20 trainings - during a time when the cybersecurity world used to physically congregate in Las Vegas. This was the year we perfected the art and craft of delivering virtual trainings. We were now a community of students, instructors, TAs and Ringzer0 crew. Knowledge and memes both flowed freely on our Discord channels. Virtual happy hours celebrated successful training wrap ups. Instructor and TA debrief sessions provided us valuable insight into reaching the next level of efficiency and excellence. Ringzer0 was well grounded, with an established cadence of two training events a year - early spring and summer.

#### 2022 - A Brave New World The world was opening up slowly, very slowly indeed. Ringzer0's CATCH2022 took place virtually during February, featuring 18 trainings. A number of new topics were added to our training portfolio. CATCH2022 marked our fourth successful virtual training event. By summer, the world was ready to meet in person once again! Elated, the Crew, Instructors, TA’s, and Students of Ringzer0 returned BACK2VEGAS in August 2022, at the Park MGM. A total of 15 trainings were delivered during BACK2VEGAS - 10 in-person and 5 virtual. We rediscovered the joy of in-person training, and learning together, both inside and out of the classroom. For many of us, it was our first meeting in person, students and instructors alike. Ringzer0 was finally back in Vegas again, to stay!

#### 2023 - RETURN23XPLOIT and RINGZER0GRAVITY So folks, that brings us to today. Preparations for our next virtual event RETURN23XPLOIT are well underway, with 18 trainings scheduled over two weeks from February 18 to March 4. And I am more than happy to give you a little sneak peek of what the future holds! We will be returning to Las Vegas from 5-8 August 2023, with our in person training event RINGZER0GRAVITY. Mark your calendars, and stay tuned to our social media channels for announcements, free workshops, and more! May your 2023 be full of health, adventures, and new knowledge! Saumil Shah