Security Industry

Use Promo code WINTERME to receive $5.00 off! Purchase tickets here: [https://www.prosinthecity.com/event/speed-dating-washington-dc-16053](https://www.prosinthecity.com/event/speed-dating-washington-dc-15405) Professionals in the City is bringing intimacy and romance back to the art of speed dating! Although this combination may at first sound improbable, once you get involved, you will understand why this event is so highly anticipated! Our speed dating events are carefully designed to introduce to you as many potential partners as possible. Enjoy the ease of conversation with a new friend of the opposite sex in a seated, relaxed setting. Tonight's Speed Dating Washington DC venue is the perfect backdrop for getting to know other professionals in an atmosphere where you can actually hear yourself and your companion's conversation. During the speed dating portion of the evening, you'll date for approximately one hour, meeting intriguing members of the opposite sex as you spend a few minutes with each new acquaintance. Meet singles at our singles speed dating event and discover whom you click with! After the speed dating, join us at our Speed Dating Washington DC event for a night of socializing and more interactions. There will be a cash bar for this eventful evening, so come and meet other single professionals like yourself and have the time of your life! Then, after the event, use our exclusive online system from home to choose your matches from the people you met at the event. Without having to disclose your email address, you'll be able to send messages privately through our system to anyone who attended the event. Check in is at 7:00 and the dating begins at 7:20. Please check in at 7:00 so you have a chance to mix and mingle before the dating begins. Numbers are limited at this event so sign up soon!

PLEASE CHECK THE ONLINE MEDITATION CALENDAR FOR DETAILS OF THESE MORE THAN 50 SERVICES A WEEK- https://onlinemeditation.yogananda.org/calendar/

Let's return to one of our favorite spots to play - William Jeffrey's Tavern! WJT is a real good venue for playing the popular Pour House Trivia game. This place is less noisy than many trivia venues, and they have real good food! It is a 7:00 pm game, but you should try to arrive at least 15 minutes earlier to find us and get settled. There might be some street parking available, but there is also a parking garage for the building around back with free validated parking. The place is also on a frequent bus line from Pentagon City metro. This event is limited to seven people, so sign up now to save your spot for this fun trivia option!

We’ll be hosting our first meetup at the brand new Maman, in Courthouse, just steps from the Courthouse metro stop (the entrance is at 2055 15th St N). Think honey tahini lattes and pastries in a cozy space with lots of natural light - perfect for coworking. At 1 pm, for anyone who wants to join, we’ll walk over to Phở 75 (cash-only) to enjoy an award-winning bowl of hot phở! [The new Maman in Courthouse ](https://maps.app.goo.gl/3cAdMa6DDZ2Gs96r5?g_st=ic) [Pho 75](https://maps.app.goo.gl/veLZgEufie5YQ6Kq7?g_st=ic)

Please join us. We are a group of 6-12 people who come together weekly on Mondays for an hour of silent meditation, walking meditation. No RSVP needed; just show up! We all need more silence and peace in this world. We end with tea and snack and a poem with sharing. Our first meditation is 10 minutes, then 5 minutes walking meditation, and end with 20 minutes of silent meditation. Beginners or anyone interested in silent meditation and fellowship are welcome. We meet in the sanctuary In [Rockville United Church](https://www.rockvilleunitedchurch.org/) in Twinbrook, MD. Plenty of parking. Enter the main door and look for a green sign. ***This is a good place to rest and refresh on the way home from work and before dinner.*** Free. Try it.

[Profs and Pints DC](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“‘Kink’ or ‘Disorder’?”** a look at how psychology approaches unusual sexual behaviors, with Brian A. Sharpless, licensed clinical psychologist, former faculty member at Penn State and Washington State universities and the American School of Professional Psychology, and author of *Psychodynamic Therapy Techniques.* [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/dc-kink-or-disorder](https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/dc-kink-or-disorder) .] Few subjects are as interesting – or as sensitive – as sex. Psychology’s history of dealing with sexual behaviors and, especially, the more unusual among them, has been fraught, in many cases resulting in entirely normal and safe behavior being deemed pathological. In recent decades, however, the field has evolved to be far more open-minded, and to use diagnostic standards focused on the well-being of those involved. Be on hand as Dr. Brian Sharpless, a popular regular on the Profs and Pints stage, discusses how psychologists and psychiatrists approach some of the more unusual sexual behaviors. You’ll learn how the mental-health field historically has thought about, and currently diagnoses and treats, behaviors it deems as crossing the line that separates a quirk or kink from a legitimate psychological disorder. Dr. Sharpless will start by giving us background on exactly how psychologists and psychiatrists determine that a behavior qualifies for “disorder” status. The short answer is that current diagnostic systems do not consider sexual behaviors to be disorders unless they meet certain criteria such as seriously interfering in the life of the person engaged in them or lacking consent among the involved parties. But there’s a lot of nuance to this, which he’ll cover in a manner that is straightforward and understandable. The talk will then offer an in-depth discussion of three paraphilias that can cross the line into being considered as disorders that need to be treated and, in many cases, are illegal: voyeurism, exhibitionism, and frotteurism. Finally, he’ll talk about asphyxiophilia, sometimes called autoerotic asphyxiation, the act of enhancing sexual arousal through the intentional deprivation of oxygen. You may be shocked to learn how many individuals are injured or killed each year while engaging in this potentially dangerous activity. Dr. Sharpless also will discuss fetishistic fantasies and behavior, which are relatively common in the general population but among a small share end up being formally diagnosed as fetishistic disorder. He’ll discuss how fetishes are defined and summarize the research on them. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.) Images of feather and chicken from Rawpixel.com.

Looking for a new skill? Want to seem mysterious when people ask about your hobbies? Enjoy puzzles? Lock picking might be right for you! Is this legal? Yes! Is it fun? Yes! The meeting is very casual, come and go as you please. We meet in the upstairs area of Board Room. No payment, skills, tools, or RSVP necessary. If you can make small precise movements with your hands, you can learn to pick locks. Introductory talk at 7pm. All are welcome. We meet in a bar but minors are allowed to attend. We are not in a private room; parental discretion advised. If you are a minor or are responsible for one who's attending, please email the organizer in advance at chapter-DC@toool.us Open invite; bring friends! We are the DC chapter of TOOOL. More information here: http://toool.us/

HYBRID EVENT, VIRTUAL SPEAKER In this talk, Sean Hoar will explore the transformative journey of AI’s role in modern software engineering, from rapid prototyping (“Vibe Coding”) to strategic AI integration by skilled practitioners. It clarifies the distinctions between AI-assisted, AI-enabled, and practitioner-led approaches, offering insights into how developers can effectively adapt to and harness AI tools. The presentation also highlights recent advancements and practical strategies for leveraging AI in daily workflows and long-term development.

Join us for a relaxed, friendly Sunday lunch with fellow secular folks. This is a casual, come-as-you-are gathering focused on good conversation, shared interests, and community, no agenda, no presentations, just an easygoing meal together. In addition to your RSVP, please email ClydeDonovan202@gmail.com that you will be attending.

Each week we’ll revisit the core cyberpunk classics — starting with Blade Runner (1982), then Ghost in the Shell (1995), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), Strange Days (1995), The Matrix (1999), eXistenZ (1999), and Blame! (2017).

Join us for thr DC Crypto Meetup – Taco Tuesday! Tuesday\, December 30 \| 5:30\-&;30 PM Mission Navy Yard 1221 Van St SE, Washington, DC We’ll be upstairs near the stairs ( as the host, if you can spot us). If it gets too loud, we’ll shift downstairs. I will have a small LED candle so you can spot us. Mission is the largest bar in the city, so there’s plenty of room. No formal agenda, just good conversation. See you Tuesday! Happy hour is served daily from 4 - 6 pm, Hosted by NFTve – fine artist, NFT creator, and long-time blockchain & crypto enthusiast.

OWASP is ending use of Meetup, so I built an eventbrite for the event. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ai-development-risk-case-studies-and-how-agentic-ai-is-the-future-of-appsec-tickets-1981450622150?aff=oddtdtcreator AI is transforming how software is designed, developed, and deployed, dramatically accelerating velocity while introducing new categories of risk. As organizations adopt AI-assisted coding, autonomous agents, and increasingly complex model interactions, traditional application security approaches struggle to keep pace. This talk examines emerging AI-driven risks through real case studies from the field, highlighting issues such as insecure code generation, data-leakage pathways, model manipulation, and evolving supply-chain threats. We will explore how engineering teams must adapt their people, processes, and governance models to secure AI-augmented development workflows effectively. The session will then introduce agentic AI as the next evolution in application security—autonomous systems capable of continuous analysis, multi-step reasoning, and real-time remediation. Attendees will learn how combining agentic AI with modern practices can reduce developer friction, improve coverage, and create a future-ready application security strategy designed for the demands of AI-native software development

**People Analytics 101: Making Sense of Compensation Data** Compensation data is one of the most widely used and widely misunderstood forms of people analytics. The session will cover where compensation data comes from, including market pricing data, internal payroll data, and benchmarking sources, and how companies think about structuring and analyzing that information. We will explore how compensation data is leveraged to set salary ranges, manage internal equity, support hiring and retention, and align pay with business strategy. A portion of the session will address common data challenges and limitations, such as market noise, inconsistent job matching, and incomplete datasets, while keeping the primary focus on practical use rather than technical depth. The session will also look ahead at where the space is going, including the growing impact of pay transparency laws, expanding pay equity requirements, and emerging regulations in the US and Europe that require organizations to report on gender and pay gaps. The goal is to give attendees a clear mental model for how compensation analytics works today and why getting it right is becoming increasingly critical. (note: we are back at Rev1 this month!) **About Our Speaker** [Alex Moore](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexscottmoore/) is the founder of [Moore Cooperative](https://moorecooperative.com/), where he advises organizations on compensation strategy, pay equity, and people analytics. His work focuses on helping organizations like the Ohio Supreme Court design, analyze, and communicate compensation systems that are data-informed, defensible, and aligned with organizational goals. Alex lives in Granville, Ohio and has three little kiddos. More info at [cbusdaw.com](https://cbusdaw.com)

**Important note about the retirement of the OWASP Meetup platform** Fellow OWASP Toronto members, We are making an important announcement regarding an upcoming transition. The OWASP Foundation has announced that they will be retiring their Meetup Pro subscription effective January 31, 2026: https://owasp.org/blog/2026/01/13/retiring-meetup.html This means that our OWASP Toronto Meetup group may be removed in the coming days. We understand this may be short notice, so we want to make this announcement before we lose access. You are an important part of our chapter community. Many attendees I have spoken to have discovered OWASP Toronto via Meetup. To continue engaging with the community while using a platform that enables discoverability, we will moving to the [Evenbrite](https://owasp-toronto-chapter.eventbrite.com/) for publishing our events. You can continue to follow us via our [Google Group mailing list](https://groups.google.com/a/owasp.org/g/toronto-chapter), our [Chapter page](https://owasp.org/www-chapter-toronto/), our [LinkedIn group](https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/owasp-toronto-chapter/), our [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqmBl-u_4cOEiH3OXWE3sPg), our Slack channel ([#owasp-toronto-chapter](https://owasp.slack.com/archives/C075DRCB1PZ), does not require an OWASP membership), as well as on our new [Discord channel](https://discord.gg/eg3upJ6N). Please see below for details of our February 12 event. Visit our [Eventbrite](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/owasp-toronto-february-2026-tickets-1982057078076) page for more information! \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* **Dual Talk Event: Raising Cyber Awareness Through Electronic Word of Mouth \| When AI Becomes Application Logic: Securing Shadow AI** Presentation #1: Raising Cybersecurity Awareness Through Electronic Word of Mouth: A Data-Driven Assessment Awareness of the many cybersecurity threats, vulnerabilities, and solutions to mitigate these threats/vulnerabilities is instrumental in improving basic cybersecurity behaviours. A healthy body of knowledge has been devoted to exploring how to better increase awareness, in any given topic, among members of the general public which have explored the role of word of mouth (WOM) and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) in spreading awareness. In recent years, the rise of social media platforms as an alternative communication channel has created efforts to promote cybersecurity awareness online regarding the numerous cybersecurity threats. However, little research attention has been devoted to exploring eWOM communication on social media surrounding cybersecurity awareness. Moreover, no research to date has considered the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these eWOM discussions related to cybersecurity awareness. To address these literature gaps, this research collected 227, 270 relevant tweets surrounding cybersecurity awareness from 2018 to 2022 conducting an exploratory analysis of the corpus using social network analyses, topic modelling and semantic similarity analysis. The results found topics rose in prominence and then dissipated as newer topics emerged while information was found to spread incredibly far despite a high degree of community forming, suggesting the online discourse is very open and evolving over time. These findings illustrate the potential of social media as an effective tool for raising cybersecurity awareness. The impact of COVID-19 observed an increase in the reach of information in addition to new specific topics emerging in the discourse, but the effects appear to be temporary. Speaker: Dane Vanderkooi Dane Vanderkooi is a fifth-year Doctoral Candidate in management science at TorontoMet University who specializes in researching cybersecurity and digital privacy behaviours. He completed his bachelor's of commerce at Uottawa and holds a master's in management science degree from Ryerson University. Dane has published his research in academic journals, conferences and industry reports. Dane has also presented his research at various conferences including HC2P, SERENE-RISC, HCII, CyberToronto, ASAC and SocialMedia+Society, AMCIS, and ICIS. Dane is certified in cybersecurity (CC) from ISC2 and has practical experience working in the field of cybersecurity with private industry, non-for-profits, and the public sector including the Canadian Armed Forces, Public Health and Safety Canada, Justice Canada, Innovation Science and Economic Development (ISED), Bell, BMO, Desjardins, Ritchie Bros and Achev. \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* Presentation #2: When AI Becomes Application Logic: Securing Shadow AI AI is entering production faster than security teams can see it. From “simple” chatbot integrations to LLMs wired directly into business logic — and agents running entire application flows — organizations are accumulating Shadow AI: untracked, ungoverned, and often dangerously over-privileged. This talk shows how AI quietly changes application behavior at runtime: expanding trust boundaries, introducing non-deterministic authorization paths, and creating blast radiuses that static inventories and policy checklists cannot capture. Using real-world architectural patterns and runtime signals, we’ll demonstrate how security teams can identify where AI is actually used, what it can access, and how attackers abuse AI-driven logic to exploit new classes of vulnerabilities. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for securing AI-powered applications — grounded in runtime behavior and evidence, not assumptions. Speaker: Daniel Shechter Daniel Shechter is the CEO and Co-Founder of Miggo, an Application Detection and Response platform. Shechter has an impressive background in both threat intelligence and within the security industry. Before founding Miggo he was leading cyber security teams in Israel's elite cyber intelligence division, Unit 8200. He later joined McKinsey, a strategy and management consulting company, where he provided guidance on acquisition, developing new business strategies and more. Shechter is an industry expert in security, incident detection and response, threat intelligence, and attack observability.

### Tools in your AI's Toolbox : An introduction to MCP Servers The generative AI revolution has unlocked unprecedented capabilities, but the next frontier is agency: empowering models to interact with, query, and act upon the world. The current challenge is the “N x M integration problem,” where every AI model requires a custom, brittle integration for each external tool or data source. This approach simply doesn’t scale. How can we give an AI access to our sales leads, code repositories, or IoT devices in a standardized, secure, and reusable way? This session introduces Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open-source framework designed to solve this challenge and become the universal connector—the USB-C port—for AI. MCP standardizes how AI models discover and use external tools, moving beyond simple function-calling to a robust, client-server architecture. We will dive into how this open protocol is creating a new ecosystem for building powerful, context-aware AI agents. Join this session for a developer-focused introduction where you will learn how to: Understand the core concepts of the open-source Model Context Protocol and its architecture. Utilize pre-built, open-source MCP servers to instantly connect AI to tools like Git, Slack, and databases. Build a custom MCP server to securely expose your own proprietary data and APIs as tools for any compliant AI. Move beyond bespoke integrations and contribute to a standardized, collaborative, and open ecosystem. Stop building one-off connectors and start building intelligent agents. This session will give you the practical knowledge to leverage MCP and create the next generation of AI that doesn’t just talk, but does. Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! [https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/](https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/)

**How to take control of your subconscious and harness its power!** Join us for an eye-opening lecture where the speaker will break down complex ideas in a clear and practical way. You’ll gain insights into: ✅ The true definition of the subconscious ✅ How it generates unwanted emotions ✅ Its real purpose and function ✅ What determines the pressure it exerts on you And the most important topic: **How do you take control of your subconscious!** But this isn’t just another lecture where you sit and listen passively. It’s interactive and engaging—you can ask questions at any time. 📅 Reserve your spot now! Seats are limited, so don’t wait too long to sign up. Location: 1266 Dublin Rd, Columbus, OH 43215 Hosted by the Hubbard Dianetics Foundation

Join members of the local UX and Digital Design community for a casual monthly breakfast. There _might_ be a little snow, but there _will_ be effectively infinite serve-yourself coffee, so it evens out if you ask me. Just a reminder, while the other locations are great too, we’re at the Lane Ave one this time.

Columbus Code & Coffee is an inclusive, informal co-working session. People of all skill levels attend, and we love it that way. Many people (optionally) bring projects to work on, and many other people (optionally) socialize the entire time. It's entirely up to you! **What to Expect at the Intro Circle** \~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~ Near the beginning of the event (1:30 pm), we do a standup: * Organizer announcements, updates, and logistics Round 1 - (7 secs max): * Your name * What you're working on * What you can help others with Round 2: * Community events you wanna plug. If none, that's cool too. Round 3: * Job opportunities you're hiring for OR announce that you are looking for one. If none, that's cool. After the introduction circle, everything is self-organized! Feel free to work alone, pair up, attend one of our workshops/presentations, or mingle!