Bronwen Aker is a BHIS Technical Editor who joined full-time in 2022 after years of contract work, bringing decades of web development and technical training experience to her roles in editing pentest reports, enhancing QA/QC processes, and improving public websites, and who enjoys sci-fi/fantasy, Animal Crossing, and dogs outside of work.

Corey Ham has been with Black Hills Information Security (BHIS) since 2021 delivering red teaming and OSINT services. Currently, Corey leads the ANTISOC team at BHIS, providing subscription-based continuous red teaming to BHIS clients. Outside of his time at BHIS, you can find him out in the woods or up on a mountain somewhere.

Hayden Covington joined Black Hills Information Security (BHIS) in the Summer of 2022 as a SOC Analyst. He chose BHIS after hearing many great things over the years and seeing the quality of work, as well as finding people who have the same passion for the field as he does. His favorite part of the job so far has been the community. Previously, Hayden worked in a SOC for a Naval contractor, where he also served as their SOAR project manager and SME, as well as insider threat lead. When he’s not working, Hayden can be found doing anything athletic (like triathlons!), as well as enjoying video gaming and Formula 1.

John Strand has both consulted and taught hundreds of organizations in the areas of security, regulatory compliance, and penetration testing. He is a coveted speaker and much loved SANS teacher. John is a contributor to the industry-shaping Penetration Testing Execution Standard and 20 Critical Controls frameworks.

Ralph is a U.S. Army veteran and former DoD contractor who supported the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) with information security challenges and threat actor simulations. Over the past decade, he has provided offensive security services at Optiv Security and Black Hills Information Security (BHIS) across various industries. His expertise spans network, physical, and wireless penetration testing, social engineering, and advanced adversarial emulation through red and purple team assessments. Ralph has developed several tools, including Bitor (set to release in January 2025) and Warhorse, which enhance efficiency in penetration testing infrastructure and operations. He has spoken at numerous conferences, including DEF CON, Black Hat, Hack Miami, B-Sides Tampa, and Hack Space Con.

Wade Wells has been working in cybersecurity for a decade, focusing on detection engineering, threat intelligence, and defensive operations. Wade currently works as a Lead Detection Engineer at 1Password, where he helps build and mature scalable detection programs. Outside of his day-to-day work, Wade is deeply involved in the security community through teaching, mentoring, podcasting, and running local events

Dan Rearden, known in the community as HaircutFish, is an experienced SOC Analyst who transitioned into cybersecurity following a career-changing injury in 2020. Driven by a passion for solving complex puzzles and an exploratory mindset, he evolved from hardware repair into a dedicated Blue Team professional. In his current role, Dan triages high-level security tickets while actively contributing to the community through technical discourse. Dan is dedicated to refining his skills at detection engineering and advancing the field of defensive security.

Troy Wojewoda is a Security Consultant at Black Hills Information Security (BHIS). Prior to joining BHIS, Troy has held roles in application and system administration, host and network intrusion detection, wireless security, penetration testing, digital forensics, malware analysis, threat hunting, and incident response. In addition to earning several professional certifications, Troy has a BS in Computer Engineering and Computer Science. Troy enjoys writing custom tools and developing novel techniques for testing the security posture of an organization. Away from work, Troy enjoys spending time with his family, camping/hiking in the mountains, homebrewing, woodworking, and coaching children in STEM programs.