Cloud Security

**Inflow 6:00 PM - Talks Start \~6:30 PM** **Reston Community Center - 2310 Colts Neck Rd, Reston, VA 20191** NoVA Hackers is a group located in the Northern Virginia area and is made up of Information Security Professionals from all walks of life, from government and private sector, to students and beginners. The monthly meetings are held much like a mini-conference with 4-8 speakers and only a few basic but strict rules. Participation and Permission Active Participation is required for continued membership and is the only due required. Permission is required to be obtained from anyone providing information to the group from the person providing it to be made public by anyone other than the provider. Historically our talks generally run a bit late and we have a hard stop at 9:30pm for the room. If you want to socialize we recommend you arrive at 6 to meet and greet before the talks. Agendas and remote meeting option available after you join the group.

Looking to level up your cybersecurity skills in a low-pressure, beginner-friendly environment? Join us for a casual co-hacking session where everyone works on **their own Hack The Box or Capture The Flag-style labs**, but we learn *together*. This is **not** a formal class or presentation. Instead, bring your laptop, grab a coffee, and make progress on whatever you're working on. If you get stuck, feel free to ask someone nearby — and if you have a tip or trick to share, jump in! The goal is to create a collaborative, welcoming space for learners of all experience levels. ### What to Expect * Work independently on your own Hack The Box labs, walkthroughs, or practice machines * Ask questions and share solutions when you want — no pressure * Meet other people interested in cybersecurity, hacking, and problem-solving * Beginners, intermediate learners, and experienced practitioners all welcome ### ☕ Location **Layered (Coffee Shop)** Comfortable seating, reliable Wi-Fi, and good vibes for hacking time. Please purchase and enjoy a drink or treat to support the venue. ### ✔ What to Bring * Laptop * Hack The Box account ([sign up here](https://www.hackthebox.com/hacker/hacking-labs), they offer a number of free labs) or other practice platform

Gaming, AdTech, EdTech, Media Streaming, and FinTech are just a few of the workloads where high-availability cloud infrastructure matters. Whether you’re doing battle daily in one of these spaces or are just curious about ways to improve performance, meet us in Reston for an in-person discussion on bare metal cloud architecture. You’ll meet our product lead, James MacKenzie, who will walk through how modern bare metal serves as a control plane for hybrid and private cloud architectures. **What we will cover** * Ways to leverage bare metal, containers, and orchestration for better performance and predictable economics; * Real-world hybrid, disaster recovery, and data-intensive architectures; * Our approach to eliminating ingress and egress fees. **Who should attend** * Cloud architects and platform engineers; * DevOps professionals and infrastructure leads; * FinOps stakeholders managing data-heavy or hybrid workloads. **Why attend** This is a technical, architecture-first conversation. You will leave with a clearer understanding of high-availability cloud infrastructure and how organizations are scaling cost-effectively. Food and drinks will be provided. Space is limited to keep the discussion interactive.

Come join us at Nova Labs for our monthly lockpicking meeting! We meet every third Wednesday at the Nova Labs Fairfax location at 3850 Jermantown Road. Learn about locks, lockpicking, lock modifications, and even lock smithing in our classroom environment. No tools, skills, or knowledge required, but feel free to bring any of those things with you! Our meetings are overseen by one or more locksmiths.

Federal Executive GovCon - "Supporting Government Efficiency with Thought Leadership" When: Thursday, January 22, 2026, 5:30 – 8:00 Location: Lost Rhino, 21730 Red Rum Dr, Ste 142, Ashburn, VA 20147 (\*\* NEW LOCATION \*\*) Come network with other local GovCon Executives and enjoy a few free beers on us and engage with our sponsors and Industry speakers. Please register here for your spot and please enter full name and company so a badge will be waiting for you. Sponsorships: 1 of 2 spots are available. DM me to claim the 2nd sponsorship to highlight your company to an invitation-only executive audience.

**Join us for an insider's guide to achieving financial freedom through house hacking.** We will share proven strategies for turning your home into a powerful wealth-building tool. Discover multiple methods to successfully house hack your way to financial independence, including how to find the right property, choose the proper strategy, and own for less than renting. Come for the training, stay for the networking! ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **Did you miss it?** [Watch all GRID event playbacks on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/gridinvestor) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **Join the GRID Facebook Community** [Join our online GRID community here](https://www.facebook.com/groups/gridinvestor) to post deals, ask questions, and connect with other investors across the globe.

We will be meeting at Starbucks to learn together. Come with an online class you're already going through or an interest and we will try to connect you with a course where you can learn it. Already have a skill you want to contribute to a Kaggle Datascience competition? We will work on these too! Laptop required :)