Cybersecurity Humanitarian Work
Skull Games is an event held by All Things Possible (ATP). At this event leads on human traffickers and missing women are researched and packaged into actionable leads for law enforcement agencies. ATP has a “Victims to Victors” program where survivors of sexual exploitation are trained into OSINT analysts.
What is OSINT?
OSINT is Open-Source Intelligence. OSINT is used by intelligence agencies, law enforcement, businesses, and individuals to gather information and gain insights into a wide range of topics.
How do they do this?
Skull Games uses OSINT tools (there is no hacking allowed). ATP recommends volunteer submissions from mainly the intelligence and cybersecurity fields. Although people interested in the event who have no background in this kind of work can take an OSINT course through Echo Analytics Group and then submit their resume.
As someone transitioning to cybersecurity from a cryptocurrency and coding background, I signed up to participate in person at Skull Games 6 in Tampa, FL.
Prepping for Skull Games
First off, I submitted my application and consented to the mandatory background check. It was obviously approved, or this article wouldn't exist.
We were given two virtual trainings before the event and a packet with mandatory readings and assignments to bring to our virtual trainings. I chose to attend in-person because I've done remote-first work before it was common during the pandemic. There's just something different about being in-person if you can be there.
It was recommended to have a dedicated laptop for OSINT. You don't have to do this, but I did.
They tell you all the requirements or recommendations for doing the research on our persons of interest. I made sure to try have all my bases covered as I'm still fairly new to the cybersecurity sector.
Expectations wise? The trainings and response from the team when emailed were really professional and timely. Other than that, I had no clue what to expect. I just had to show up and find out!
The Meet & Greet
On Friday night before SG6 began we met up at Bahama Breeze to mingle with everyone flying in! Honestly, some of the most interesting people I've ever met were there. This is exactly the reason I attend events in person if I can! Because of in-person events it's how I heard of Bitcoin at $400 and Ethereum when it was 8 months old. I absolutely place a high emphasis on in-person events.
So, this event was no different. One of the people I met was initially blamed for the Colonial Pipeline Cybersecurity Hack. Long story short, he was doing consulting work the month before with a very powerful agency on the subject of securing our energy grid. Then, I was told one of the most powerful women in cybersecurity in maybe the world was here.
{ Go 👏 to 👏 more 👏 events ! }
Day 1
There were personal delays before the event such as finding out I need a surgery. So planning for that was important. If it weren't for that I wouldn't recommend trying to set up your OSINT computer the same day of the event.
- Shuttle to workspace
- Morning meeting
- Set up accounts for researching
- Downloading tools for OSINT
- Wifi was cutting out during the event
- This event had a record number of people in person and online trying to log on to the investigation platform, so our cases were emailed to us
- Went to Best Buy to see if there was an issue with the laptop (it was the wifi)
- Finding information on persons of interest
- Internet Issues
- End of day meeting
Let's be clear, the people who run this event are professionals. I don't think they would have chosen this venue if they knew they would have these issues. I didn't bring my own wifi hotspot or any cables to hardwire in. They chose a headquarters for a fast food chain, which means one assumes that business-level and large-group wifi needs should be met with minimal issues.
Despite the hiccups of the day, it was still an extremely valuable day. The leaders determined immediately how to make future events better. Skull Games events have only been going on for about a year. It's been their ten-year overnight journey and it's still at the beginning of the execution phase to get this event to the level they want it to be.
Day 2
- Group picture
- Morning presentation
- Logged into the investigation platform
- Ability to get more information on persons of interest
- Analysing the data on images
- House address was in one photo
- Talked about specialized databases and technology to use which is honestly incredible (found out one of the women in our group was a geOSINT expert who had done some light investigative work on the Epstein case)
- Found one person of interest's mixtape and honestly one post was pretty sad
- Made more progress on the case and sent presentation over to the group leader
- End of day and event meeting
The biggest realization of the event was when on a Instagram story the person of interest shared some song lyrics from NBA YoungBoy's Foolish Figure. There was a picture of his son he may have had with one of the women he was selling and these lyrics were right over the son's face.
“They tell me I'm a star, I'm just a foolish figure
It seem like I'm strong but I'm really broke down
I'm happy that I'm winnin' but ain't proud of myself
Lookin' for this bitch to love me but ain't lovin' herself
Got these nixxas and the police trackin' me on my trail”
How fitting for the case I was working on. Then I shared these lyrics with the group right?
Then I clearly got philosophical as I usually do.
“You know what this means? It's a Freudian slip. This guy knows that he's living a lie and he's just continuing to lie to himself.
People want to make their problems sound so complicated but if you understand emotions, it's not that complicated. Emotions are not engineering problems.
Most people are willing to lie to themselves than face the truth.
That's it, this guy and most of these people do not genuinely know what success looks like.”
Plain, simple, and not complicated.
The average earning power of a drug dealer or a pimp after damages done to their reputation, court fees, and everything else is minimum wage or lower.
A video about how most people are just lying to themselves more than anyone else.
After that, we were leaving the building and many people were heading to the airport with the shuttle.
It was here I got into an Uber with a man who worked on tracking John McAfee's financial data from working in D.C. This is why I emphasize in-person events. It's where the most hardcore movers and shakers in any field are!
This came up because we were sharing how we got into cybersecurity. I got in through cryptocurrency and attended events around the U.S and internationally. One of those events was when I was set to see John McAfee talk at a conference in Las Vegas. It happened to be the conference where an attempt was made on his life. It was one of his last public events in the U.S.
I was kind of wary that he had a “medical issue” as was told to the crowd with him calling in from “the hospital”. Later we found out he could not go to the hospital. He went to a safe house where a doctor gave him medical care there or he would have been apprehended by the authorities. In the crowd the guy next to me was partying with McAfee doing drugs with him the night before.
Then I got into how someone I was formerly friends with (common theme with crypto folks as this guy was still in contact with the crypto CEO who hacked me) got one of the last interviews with McAfee before he was arrested off the coast of Spain. McAfee showed the faraday cage he created on his boat in this interview. Unfortunately, one of the hackers who was trained by McAfee is a huge crypto trading scammer who after Aaron Carter's death was trying to grift Carter's estate. Not shockingly, the FBI came to this man to tell him there was a hit out on him. 🙄
Enough about that, but that's how it ended for me. Well, I stayed for two more days as I don't like rushing anymore with travel. I got to try some exotic fruit with some baristas. Didn't want to throw out the other two I wasn't using. I had 4 of these exotic fruits that even most people in Florida didn't know the name of. They were lemons with lime-colored stretch marks on them, and pink on the inside and smelled like perfume but sour when eaten.