This is Russ’ 17th year as a DEF CON goon, and he has over 25 years experience in hacking. Russ first learned to program around the 1982 timeframe, when he received a Timex Sinclair, which used only programs keyed in via BASIC. He’s been involved in a numbers of aspects of DEF CON over the years, including the vendors, contests, DEF CON Groups, security, Hardware Hacking Village, and planning. Russ currently works a the Chief of Operations, where he depends heavily upon the other experienced hackers and goons that help run the world’s largest hacker conference.