Hackfest Communication Committee

Patrick R. Mathieu
patrick.mathieu @ hackfest.ca
LinkedIn
Twitter
Patrick is one of the co-founders of Hackfest.ca and has been involved in the computer security field for over 20 years and currently works as an Offensive Security Lead at Duo Security. Patrick has a B.Sc. and a DEC in Computer Science and has always been active in the community and in security events. He has been a speaker and offered workshops at Def Con, Blackhat, DerbyCon and many other security events.

Vincent B. Tremblay
vn+hfwebsite @ hackfest.ca
Bluesky
Vincent has been involved in the Quebec IT security community for almost 25 years, and his experience has given him a taste for inspiring common sense in IT [security] matters. With a DEC in network info, he began his career as a sysadmin and eventually became an IT security analyst/architect/admin. On the committee for over 10 years, he started out doing CTF and more recently BrainFuck challenges. His legendary “apple pie” has “set fire” to several events, and he can’t stop smelling the [good] smoke from his BBQ. An avid geopolitician and international traveler, he could have replaced Carmen Sandiego with his contacts/adventures all over the place. If he’s not destroying his keyboard on Rocket League, he’s techno-tripping with SDRs or passwords.

Bruno Ouellet
bruno @ hackfest.ca
Bruno has been working in computer forensics for a government agency for over 20 years. Being a big fan of continuous learning, he has recently completed his CyberInvestigation and CyberFraud certificates at Polytechnique. He is particularly interested in the broad field of forensics and eDiscovery, but also in cybersecurity in general.

Franck Desert
franck.desert @ hackfest.ca
Franck Desert (aka Phenix for CTFs) 30 years already in development and security. Security analyst and organic architect by day and by night he invests his time in the Cloud and in all the new gizmos in order to play, break and learn to try to concoct Prez and CTFs that he hopes you will like. If not, come and talk with him it’s easier and around a good beer it’s even better. Stay tuned.

Dave Cloutier
dave @ hackfest.ca
LinkedIn
Twitter
Dave has been an IT professional for almost 30 years. During his career he has held many roles ranging from network management, high availability architectures, firewalls, intrusion detection, risk analysis and penetration testing. He has been focusing on security for over 15 years and currently leads an offensive security and adversary simulation team, which gives him the freedom to let his creative mind run wild. He is very involved in the community and has also been involved for several years in creating challenges for the Hackfest CTF.

Deborah Rouleau
deborah @ hackfest.ca
LinkedIn
Twitter
Deborah is a Fullstack web developer by day, and a wannabe Infosec enthusiastic crusader with their cats army by night, always poking around the corners of badly-coded websites to make them better. A self-confessed Geek, they co-founded the Montreal GeekFest, and was involved with a number of tech meetups & initiatives in the Montreal tech scene. They also has spoken internationally on mental health issues in Geek & Tech communities. They considers herself a blend of Space Pirate Captain Harlock, My Little Pony’s Rainbow Dash, and Grumpy Cat - a modern day pirate out to make the web (and the world) a better place with their crew of Canadian geese. They are energized by spending time with their kid, their small army of cats, and hunting the world for a cask of original gin.

The Sentinel
The Sentinel is the entity that accompanies us during our activities. It was named like this because of its look of the machines of The Matrix, but more precisely to thank the organizers of the former version of Hackfest which was sponsored by the organization named C.E.N.T.I.N.E.L. of Laval University in Quebec.

Sponsors

Cyndie Feltz
cyndie @ hackfest.ca
LinkedIn
Cyndie has been working in the cybersecurity field for nearly 5 years. She has held management positions in a cybersecurity startup. Passionate about offensive cybersecurity, she eventually started her own company in the field in 2023. Her credo is to translate technical concepts into business language to raise awareness among boards of directors. A Hackfest participant since 2019, she became involved in 2022 before joining the team in 2023 for the partnership component.

Sarina Hothi
sarina @ hackfest.ca
LinkedIn
Sarina has been working in the cybersecurity field for nearly 7 years. She has held program management positions in cybersecurity at Uber & DoorDash. Passionate about building security programs and building bridges with engineering teams. She joined the Hackfest team in 2023 with a desire to get more involved in the cybersecurity community.

Call For Papers Board

Vincent B. Tremblay

Vincent has been involved in the Quebec IT security community for almost 25 years, and his experience has given him a taste for inspiring common sense in IT [security] matters. With a DEC in network info, he began his career as a sysadmin and eventually became an IT security analyst/architect/admin. On the committee for over 10 years, he started out doing CTF and more recently BrainFuck challenges. His legendary “apple pie” has “set fire” to several events, and he can’t stop smelling the [good] smoke from his BBQ. An avid geopolitician and international traveler, he could have replaced Carmen Sandiego with his contacts/adventures all over the place. If he’s not destroying his keyboard on Rocket League, he’s techno-tripping with SDRs or passwords.

Trevor Stevado

Trevor is a former software developer who one day realized that breaking things was so much more fun than building things. Trevor has been in the security consulting world for 8 years, starting with IBM, and then as a key member of Grant Thornton’s Cyber Security practice. He is now the founder of Loudmouth Security, focusing on offensive security assessments and defensive countermeasures. Trevor is also a senior staff member and leader of the red cell for an attack/defence CTF that is played at various BSides conferences in the US, with the main event happening at BSidesLV every year.

Nadeem Douba

Nadeem Douba is the founding principal of Red Canari, an information security consulting firm that specializes in the areas of technical security assessments. With over 15 years experience, Nadeem provides consulting and training services for organizations within the public and private sector. He has also presented at some of the world’s largest security conferences and is the author of many well-known open source security tools, including PyMiProxy (used by the Internet Archive), Sploitego, and the Canari Framework (previously presented at DEFCON 20). His primary research interests include open source intelligence, application and operating system security, and big data.

Patrick Mathieu

Patrick is co-founder of Hackfest and has been involved in the IT security field for over 20 years. He works as a pentester and lead purple team and is specialized in application security. Patrick has a B.Sc. and a DEC in computer science and has always been active in the community and in security events.

Chris Sumner

Chris (Suggy) is a data scientist in the Cyber Security team at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. In addition to his corporate responsibilities, Chris serves on the DEF CON call-for-papers review board and is a co-founder of the not-for-profit Online Privacy Foundation who contribute to the field of psychological research in online contexts. He has authored papers and spoken on this line of research at leading Security, Psychology and Machine Learning conferences.

Our Ninjas - Hackfest CTF

See the Hackfest CTF website

Samurai - Our Volunteers

Alex

My first Hackfest was the fifth edition as assistant DJ. During the evening, I spoke with Pat and he convinced me to join the Hackfest team for edition 6. After a few years on the admission team, he offered me the job of manager, which I gladly accepted. On a personal level, I have 15 years of service in the Canadian Armed Forces, including 2 missions in Afghanistan. For the past few years, I’ve been working in IT for the federal government.

More to come!