Trainings

Security 101

This training enables participants to acquire the skills needed to perform a basic audit of their network or participate in security games (CTFs). Basic knowledge of network protocols is an asset.

Syllabus

• Introduction to pen testing — white, black, red and blue testing methodologies
• Stages of intrusion
• Virtualization tools (VMWare, VirtualBox)
• Kali Linux introduction and fundamentals — basic commands, software installation, services, network configuration
• Local test environment setup
• Introduction to netcat and alternatives (socat, powershell, powercat)
• Network visibility and protocol review (TCP/UDP, IPv4/IPv6, 3-way handshake)
• Tcpdump and Wireshark
• Network discovery tools: Nmap, Hping/Nping, Scapy
• Vulnerability discovery: Nessus, Nmap scripts
• Exploitation: Metasploit

Instructor

Claude Roy — Independent trainer and IT instructor at Cégep de Sainte-Foy. Computer engineering degree from Université Laval. Self-taught professional holding CCNA, CCAI, CCNA-Security and CCNP certifications. Over a decade of experience delivering Cisco and cybersecurity training.

Prerequisites

BYOD (laptop required). Kali Linux VM installation mandatory. VMWare Workstation or Player strongly recommended.

Security 102

Advanced follow-up to Security 101. Enables participants to move beyond basic auditing and actively participate in hacking games through deeper vulnerability exploration and exploitation techniques.

Syllabus

• Advanced password discovery with John and Hashcat
• Web security and hacking using proxies (Webscarab, Burp, OWASP-ZAP)
• Web application exploitation: SQL Injection, XSS, CSRF
• Network hacking techniques: pass-the-hash
• Proxy exercises
• Client-side hacking demonstrations and exercises
• Password extraction from Windows services, local SAM and memory
• Network pass-the-hash hacking demonstrations

Instructor

Claude Roy — See bio above.

Format: Demonstrations and hands-on exercises under trainer supervision.

Security 103

Logical progression from 101 and 102. Introduces participants to penetration tester methodologies for gaining system access.

Reconnaissance

• Reconnaissance tools: FOCA, LinkedIn, Github
• Port scanning follow-up
• Default credentials
• Vulnerability scanning
• Real penetration tester experience sharing

MITM Techniques

• Arp, Mitm6, Wpad, Responder
• Advanced password discovery
• Password spraying
• Advanced Hashcat usage and esoteric variants

Privilege Escalation & Domain Security

• Linux escalation (SSH, Sudo, Setuid)
• Windows escalation (PTH, credential manager, lsass)
• Domain architecture security
• Domain user, domain admin, local admin, service account management
• Trust relationships

Instructor

Simon Nolet

Security 101C — Introduction to AWS Cloud and Its Attack Vectors

This training introduces fundamental cloud computing concepts through Amazon Web Services (AWS), with a particular focus on security challenges, attack vectors and the most common misconfigurations.

Cloud Fundamentals

• Cloud computing overview, managed services, pricing models
• Cloud-native applications
• AWS architecture overview, shared responsibility model
• Regions, availability zones, points of presence
• Serverless concepts and AWS free tier

AWS Interfaces & Access

• Web console, command-line interface (CLI) with interactive configuration
• SDKs, Amazon Resource Names (ARNs), AWS Signature Version 4

Core Services Exploration

• Storage: Simple Storage Service (S3) — interactive exercises
• Traditional Compute: EC2, ECS, RDS — interactive exercises
• Serverless: Lambda — interactive exercises
• Integration: EventBridge, SNS, SQS

Beginner CTF

AWS challenges 1–15 (interactive)

Attack Surface & Vectors

• Attack objectives and standard attack vectors
• IAM and STS, Organizations management
• VPC configuration, insider threats
• Concrete attack scenarios (interactive)
• EC2 metadata exploitation (interactive)
• Public S3 bucket exposure (interactive)
• AWS access key leaks (interactive)
• Final CTF challenge (interactive)

Instructor

Samuel De Grace / @dax

Prerequisites

• AWS CLI
• Session Manager plugin
• Discord
• Attack tools from GitHub

Venue — Hôtel Palace Royal, 775 boul. Honoré-Mercier, Québec.

Included

• 1 Hackfest ticket (conferences, villages, Beginner CTF, etc.)
• Meals (lunch and coffee)

Not included

• CTF ticket

Schedule

Pricing

No refunds.

Physical Security 101 — Blue Team

Information security is supported by 3 essential pillars: IT security, human resources security screening and finally, physical security.

This training addresses the latter: physical security. This aspect is often overlooked or misunderstood despite preceding IT security. To ensure 360-degree information security, it is important to master the fundamentals of this essential pillar.

Objectives

• Understand the fundamentals of security
• Demystify the role and interactions of the various equipment families (locksmithing, alarm systems, access control systems, camera systems, etc.)
• Learn key terminology specific to these equipment families
• Analyze the physical security of your site

Syllabus

The 4 D’s of Security (Deter, Deny, Detect, Delay)

• Deter
• Deny
• Detect
• Delay

Adversary Sequence Diagrams (ASD)

Critical Detection Point (CDP).

Physical Protection System Design (PPS)

Locksmithing, intrusion detection, access control and video surveillance

Covered through:

• Terminology
• General concepts
• Debunking technological misconceptions about usage, operation and security flaws

Physical Security 201 — Red Team

Course 101 is a prerequisite for course 201.

Prerequisites

• Have completed or be enrolled in Physical Security 101 — Blue Team
• Hold a position in physical security or IT security at a recognized company or organization

Description

Who hasn’t heard that the best defence is offence? That sums up this training. The goal is to get into the attacker’s mindset and understand their intellectual and technical reasoning in order to counter them. The main attacks used will be presented with possible solutions. By extension, this training demystifies physical penetration testing (Physical Red Team).

Objectives

• Understand the processes of an attack
• Survey the main public attack techniques used by criminals and hackers to target your sites
• Better anticipate threats and consequently better protect your facilities
• Learn the principles and rules of physical penetration testing for internal or external execution

Syllabus

Fundamentals

• 4 constituent elements of a threat
• Rules of engagement for penetration testing
• Discussion on the legality of attacks for testing purposes
• Jamming
• Signal interception
• Pickpocketing

Real attack methodology on your facilities

• Target selection
• Open-source intelligence gathering
• Active surveillance and reconnaissance
• Attack planning
• Obtaining necessary resources
• Attack preparation (method testing phase)
• Execution of the attack: infiltration → exploitation → exfiltration

Ethics and reset

• Ethics in penetration testing
• Resetting physical security systems (e.g. replacing a picked lock after testing)

Social engineering

Bypass techniques

Locksmithing:

• Picking, bumping, impressioning
• Under/over the door tools
• Key duplication
• Master key system attacks
• Padlocks, key boxes, combination locks

Alarms:

• Motion detector sabotage
• Communication systems, codes
• Magnetic contacts, glass break sensors

Access control:

• Exit request bypass
• Card cloning, signal interception
• Card fabrication, predictable numbers
• Piggybacking, tailgating

Video surveillance: Discussion on circumventing video surveillance systems.

Physical Security 202 — Electronic Security System Reverse Engineering

Prerequisites

• Have completed or be enrolled in Physical Security 201 — Red Team
• Hold a position in physical security or IT security

Description

In physical security, we use a multitude of commercial technology products such as cameras, access control systems, alarm systems, etc. A nice presentation and delivery box do not guarantee product quality. Unfortunately, many systems are deficient by design — they are BAD (Broken As Designed). It is therefore important, both in defensive security (Blue Team) and offensive security (Red Team), to be able to reverse engineer these security components partially or fully. Theoretical training with live demonstrations.

Objectives

• Understand the reverse engineering process in physical security
• Perform basic reverse engineering analyses
• Prevent deployment of BAD components (Blue Team)
• Exploit BAD components in penetration tests (Red Team)

Syllabus

What is reverse engineering?

Legal aspects.

Reverse engineering steps

1. Understand the functionality — as a user, as an installer
2. Review the literature
3. Physical analysis — external components, internal components (PCB)
4. Software analysis — user interface, functional (OS)
5. Define attack vectors
6. Test empirically
7. Document

Reverse engineering techniques

• Printed circuit boards (PCB) — 2 types: block diagram and detailed
• EEPROM — reading and interpretation
• Wireless access control systems
• ProxMark3 tools
• Protocols: Wiegand, SPI, I2C
• Saleae Logic Pro tools (logic analyzer)
• Live reverse engineering demonstrations on real equipment

Target audience

Anyone holding a position in physical security or IT security who wants to improve the physical security of a site. Aimed at both technical staff and managers. Purple Team and Red Team perspectives presented.

Included

• 1 Hackfest ticket (conferences, villages, Beginner CTF, etc.)
• Meals (lunch and coffee)

Not included

• CTF ticket

Schedule

October 26–29, 2026, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM each day.

Pricing

Early bird (until April 30, 2026)

Regular

Prerequisites & logistics

• Valid photo ID mandatory (name must match registration)
• Proof of current employment in physical or IT security required
• No recordings permitted in class
• Course material is copyrighted
• Instructor reserves the right to refuse/cancel enrollment (with refund)

Instructor

Biography upon request.

No refunds.

This hands-on training offers a comprehensive overview of AI and automation tools applied to cybersecurity. You will discover how to leverage VSCode and its AI extensions.

You will also explore where AI can integrate into your security activities such as pentesting, vulnerability triage and vulnerability management to drastically reduce your risk exposure, detection time and threat response time.

Prerequisites: basic cybersecurity knowledge and familiarity with a development environment (VS Code or equivalent).

Participants will leave with concrete workflows ready to integrate into their daily security operations.

Syllabus

• Detailed syllabus coming soon.

Date — Thursday October 29, 2026, 9:00 AM – 5:30 PM.

Venue — Hôtel Palace Royal, 775 boul. Honoré-Mercier, Québec.

Included

• 1 Hackfest ticket (conferences, villages, Beginner CTF, etc.)
• Meals (lunch and coffee)

Not included

• CTF ticket

No refunds.

Sooner or later, your company will fall victim to a cyberattack. 60% of companies that suffer a cyberattack go bankrupt. Stop wasting time figuring out what to do, how to do it and who to contact when you’re under attack. Prepare before it’s too late — the other side is already ready!

Date — Wednesday October 28, 2026, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM.

Venue — Hôtel Palace Royal, 775 boul. Honoré-Mercier, Québec.

Description

Imagine the devastating impact of a crisis on your business… How would you react to this imminent threat? Are you truly ready to face it and protect what you’ve built with so much passion? If uncertainty overwhelms you, then our exclusive crisis management training is the key to your success.

In just 7 hours, immerse yourself in an interactive learning experience. We will reveal the secrets of crisis management to maximize your organization’s effectiveness. You will develop an understanding of crisis management mechanisms, build a solid team and clearly define everyone’s roles and responsibilities.

Together, we’ll go even further! Knowing that practice is the key to mastery, we’ll plunge you into a realistic and stimulating crisis simulation in the afternoon. You’ll put your new skills to the test and develop your reflexes to face the challenges ahead.

At the end of this unique training, you will leave with essential knowledge to overcome obstacles and protect your business. You will master the key concepts to develop a solid and effective plan.

Included

• Participant workbook
• Lunch and coffee breaks
• 1 Hackfest ticket (CTF is NOT included — except Beginner CTF)
• POLAR discount (polarcon.ca) — contact us for your discount!

Not included

• CTF ticket

Program

Morning (8:30 AM – 12:30 PM) — Theory & fundamentals

I. Introduction

• Objectives and training plan
• Instructor and participant introductions
• Importance of crisis management

II. Basic Concepts

• Crisis management definition
• Crisis management stages
• Crisis types
• Risk identification

III. Planning and Preparation

• Crisis management plan development
• Crisis management team formation
• Role and responsibility definition
• Internal and external communication

IV. Coordination of Efforts

• Common vision and crisis management objectives
• Crisis management team action coordination
• Decision-making and plan revision
• Information management

V. Training and Coaching

• Importance of training and coaching
• Training types

VI. Conclusion

• Key concept recap
• Training evaluation

Note: this summary may evolve and could integrate an artificial intelligence component.

Afternoon (1:30 PM – 4:30 PM) — Simulation

Crisis simulation based on a cyberattack scenario with direct impact on the immediate operations of the business.

Target audience

Managers and anyone wishing to learn more about how to manage a crisis.

Prerequisites & logistics

• Valid ID mandatory (name must match registration)
• Notebook and pen required
• No recordings permitted in class
• Course material is copyrighted
• Minimum registration threshold required

Instructors

Alexandre Fournier

Trainer, speaker and expert advisor in crisis management and business continuity, certified ISO 22301 Lead Implementer. With over 30 years of experience, Alexandre Fournier has led large-scale projects for implementing crisis management, business continuity and IT recovery plans in the private (banking, insurance), public and para-public sectors. Throughout his career, he has trained and supported various crisis management stakeholders. He has facilitated and coordinated numerous cyber crisis management simulations, business continuity and IT recovery exercises. He is also the founder of Crise&Résilience magazine.

Karine Maréchal Richard

Trainer, speaker and expert advisor in crisis management and business continuity, certified ISO 22301 Lead Implementer. With over 15 years of experience, Karine Maréchal Richard has led various large-scale projects implementing business continuity and crisis management plans for the private (banking, insurance), public and para-public sectors. She shares her experience with key continuity and crisis management resources to develop their skills. She has facilitated and coordinated numerous exercises in these areas. She guides senior executives in developing and implementing a business continuity and crisis management culture within their organizations. She develops her expertise in continuity and cyber crisis management.

No refunds.

Come learn the pro tips you need to digitally eviscerate your target by means of social engineering techniques and OSINT.

This intensive two-day bootcamp, led by DEF CON black badge winner Shane MacDougall, teaches professionals all the skills needed to profile, target and attack individuals or institutions with ruthless efficiency. Delivered in English — advanced level required.

Dates — October 28–29, 2026.

Venue — Hôtel Palace Royal, 775 boul. Honoré-Mercier, Québec.

Included

• 1 Hackfest ticket (conferences, villages, Beginner CTF, etc.)
• Meals (lunch and coffee both days)
• 90 minutes complimentary phone consulting from instructor (valid 2 years after the event)

Not included

• CTF ticket

Program

Day 1 — OSINT

Morning

• Introduction to the OSINT toolkit
• Profiling Basics
• Advanced Profiling
• Selecting Your Target
• Putting our tools to use

Afternoon

• Review
• Individual Exercise: Capture The Flag
• Debrief
• Group Exercise: Team Capture The Flag
• Debrief
• Homework

Day 2 — Social Engineering

Morning

• Social Engineering Basics
• Body language — micro and macro expressions
• Building a bullet-proof pretext
• Bypassing physical security systems
• Exercise

Afternoon

• Field Trip: People Watching exercise
• Public speaking exercise
• Group exercise: Fortune 500
• Debrief / Lessons Learned

Prerequisites

Equipment: laptop with minimum 16 GB RAM, VirtualBox pre-installed, 500 MB free disk space.

Skills: basic proficiency with Linux is advised but not mandatory.

Instructor

Shane MacDougall — has been involved in the information security world on both the black hat and white hat sides since 1989. He has worked as a penetration tester, a sneaker, and as a corporate infosec specialist. He has been hired to break into national and regional banks, defence contractors and government agencies, and has instructed people from many of the three-letter agencies around the world. He has lectured at various international conferences. Two-time DEF CON black badge winner for the SECTF and the first contestant to ever get a perfect score. He now spends his time doing the occasional infosec gig for hire and running the HackFest SECTF. He is also currently a paramedic in San Diego, California.

No refunds.

This is not a typical training. It is an operational bootcamp: five years of experience compressed into two days.

Delivered by @PhenixCorp

Venue — Hôtel Palace Royal, 775 boul. Honoré-Mercier, Québec.

Included

• 1 Hackfest ticket (conferences, villages, Beginner CTF, etc.)
• Meals (lunch and coffee)

Not included

• CTF ticket

REAL-WORLD SWAT methodology

Operational principles — Real enterprise constraints (budget, legacy, politics). Immediate execution (everything tested live). Production-oriented architecture (not a POC). Continuous delivery of usable artifacts from day one.

Technical principles (non-negotiable) — KISS, DRY, YAGNI, SRP, IDP (Infrastructure as Code from minute one).

Strong focus on the Microsoft ecosystem, primarily Azure.

Duration: 2 days (16–18 h) · Format: 09:00–18:00 (may extend) · Approach: REAL-WORLD & SWAT.

Philosophy: What works in production, what actually protects, what saves money.

Syllabus

Day 1 — Cloud without the BS (09:00–18:00)

09:00–09:30 · Reality check & business context

Myths vs priorities, real Azure TCO, failed migration patterns, quick workload assessment. Deliverable: cloud / on-prem decision matrix.

09:30–11:00 · Azure architecture in the field

Management groups, subscriptions, resource groups, governance. Costly mistakes. Lab: multi-env structure, naming, budget alerts, mandatory tags.

11:15–12:30 · Core services (the 20/80)

Compute (B/D VMs, Spot, App Service, AKS, Functions), storage (Blob, Files, Disks), networking (hub-spoke, private endpoints, App Gateway + WAF). Demo: three-tier app with realistic monthly cost.

13:30–15:00 · FinOps without taboos

Reserved Instances, Hybrid Benefit, Dev/Test, Spot, auto-shutdown, Microsoft negotiation levers. Workshop: invoice review, PowerShell script, CFO dashboard.

15:15–17:00 · Identity & Zero Trust

Entra ID (MFA, PIM, dynamic groups, B2B), pragmatic RBAC, Defender (Secure Score, JIT, AAC). Lab: Zero Trust in 30 minutes.

17:00–18:00 · Infrastructure as Code

Bicep as reusable baseline; Bicep / ARM / Terraform in an Azure context. Deliverable: starter kit (Dev/Test/Prod layout, templates, scripts, documentation).

Day 2 — Security operations & SWAT mode (09:00–18:30)

09:00–09:30 · SWAT briefing & day 1 recap

Q&A, shift to SecOps mindset, Microsoft security stack, promise: operational detection and response.

09:30–11:00 · Defender suite

Defender for Cloud (CSPM, CWPP), JIT/JEA, adaptive controls. Lab: full protection in 45 minutes.

11:15–12:30 · Azure Policy

Ten policies that save careers, initiatives (CIS, ISO, PCI), pragmatic exemptions. Lab: governance without friction.

13:30–15:00 · Sentinel & KQL

Cost-aware ingestion, KQL queries (brute force, privilege escalation, exfiltration), production workbooks. Lab: data sources, rules, playbook, simulated attack.

15:15–16:30 · Monitoring & diagnostics

Log Analytics, Resource Graph, automation playbooks. Lab: diagnostic settings, alerts, dashboard, Teams/Slack.

16:30–17:30 · Incident response & war room

Minute-by-minute simulation (Sentinel → KQL → containment → recovery). Crisis kit and “panic button” style script.

17:30–18:30 · Wrap-up & battle cards

Runbook, 20 KQL queries, 10 policies, workbooks, PowerShell scripts, cost calculator for the CFO.

Honest prerequisites

Technical: TCP/IP and DNS, Windows/Linux administration, read PowerShell, security basics, introductory public cloud.

Mindset: pragmatism, curiosity, courage, resilience.

Equipment: laptop with local admin rights, Azure account (trial or MSDN — support available), GitHub account for labs (access to the training repository).

Success & ROI

End of training: Dev/Test infra deployed, Sentinel detections, policies, dashboard, crisis kit validated.

30 days: Secure Score, cost optimisation, compliance.

90 days: critical migration, MTTD/MTTR, management ROI.

Investment: two intensive days + post-training practice + willingness to change how you work.

Closing note: you leave with running infrastructure, security that protects, and the ability to respond like a SWAT team to an Azure incident.

Instructor

@PhenixCorp (Franck) — has been involved with Hackfest since 2012. Hooked since the Brain virus (1986), he works on hacking, malware and development with relentless curiosity. Now focused on full cloud security (Azure, M365) as a rainbow-team practitioner while keeping other public clouds within reach. Known for the PhenixCorp VM track, DarkPhenix, ReverseMe, CrackMe, RussianDoll, Phenix2Kill; CTF design team lead since 2018 and committee member since 2017. His goal: make CTFs a permanent learning tool inside companies.