Russ Rogers was born in Oklahoma, and attended the University of Oklahoma before joining the US Air Force, and graduating with a Bachelor's and Master's Degree from the University of Maryland. Russ has been involved with computers, programming, and hacking since the early 1980's; originally cutting his teeth on a Timex Sinclair 1000. Having been involved with the DEF CON hacker conference for 17 years, Russ has recently taken over as the Chief of Operations for the conference. He is also the Professor of Network Security for the University of Advancing Technology, where he attempts to ensure the degree program maintains some adherence to the requirements of industry, while still trying to stoke the inner hacker in his students.I was originally using dial-up modems to connect to mainframes at universities around the country, in order to access the Internet. At the time, it was still quite small, with text only web pages, and about 3,000 from around the world on IRC. His early interests center around this early internet, BBS', and BASIC programming.I've had the good fortune to meet many of my heroes, including Steve Wozniak, Don Knuth, and many of the original Bell Labs folks. Over the years, I've tried to shape my own life in the industry in much the same way, paying back to the community that helped me become who I am today, by continuing to contribute to DEF CON, and teaching the next generation about what it means to me, to be a hacker.I've spoken and trained on security/hacking topics around the world, including Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Amsterdam, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi. Including my work as a technical editor, I'm credited in 20 books; and I've appeared on CNN, magazines, and radio shows, as a subject matter expert. My full time job is helping to protect our National infrastructure; performing targeted penetration testing and red team activities.