For those not familiar, last year I created a new-and-improved Box-of-Shit that was put for charity auction at BSidesLV 2014. Wow, lot of dashes there, go Engrish! For those not familiar with the absolutely legendary attrition.org boxes-of-shit, take a minute to familiarize yourself with it. The box last year was the center of a heated bidding war, with a BSidesLV security staff member proxying bids from another room, as a bidder was also teaching a class or robbing a casino or something like that. Anyway, Nate the Hero (official title) donated $1,000 to the charities selected by BSides (EFF, Securing Change, and HFC). Outstanding!
This year, I doubled down. There are TWO boxes of shit up for auction…
First, the important part. I humbly ask that you read and focus on this bit, because it is the entire point of my effort and goal in doing this. BSidesLV 2015 auctions will raise money for OWASP, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Hackers for Charity (HFC), and Hak4Kidz. Supporting charity is always a good thing, right?
Remember, InfoSec is considered a “zero unemployment” industry, and our average salaries are ridiculous. While we are quick to do the Facebook “like-activism” to support minimum wage increases, many of us spend $6 on a coffee every morning. If you make solid money in our field, and you cannot go out of pocket for 1% of your salary, you should probably skip the next version of “h4ck1ng f0r l33t kidz” and read a book on personal finances. Live a little… give up a shred of luxury, and donate to the greater good. If you win, you will get to read some personal thoughts I have on the matter, and receive a challenge of sorts.
So… there are two boxes this year! You can troll my Twitter feed for a few random pictures that barely tease what are in each. Even better, you can use this blog to see the teaser page that is accompanied with each box! I’ve been told that there will be remote bidding this year, which is very cool. For the next two days, I will also answer questions about each box, in a manner that does not reveal how awesome, or how lame a box is. Rest assured, more time and energy was spent on these two boxes than all other boxes/envelopes I have ever sent out, combined. Each box comes with a ~ 4 page personal letter for the winner, among other things. That has to be worth a postage stamp at the least.
Here you go! You get what the in-person bidders get, the same teaser PDF. If you are at keys, you can play 20 questions via Twitter, while they are throwing back a bud light and telling their new friends about how they found an unpatched WordPress CMS last week.
p.s. These are likely to be the last ever boxes I brew, for many reasons.
p.p.s. In the interest of exposure, I will spam this link several times the next couple of days. DEAL WITH IT