As always the meet up was a success thanks to all. The place was feeled with a lot of interesting conversations technological related. It was very nice to see a lot of new faces. Veterans and new people pretty soon engage in conversation so they interchanged and shared topics of interest. Therefor we are expecting to get better and better creating an atmosphere of friendliness and welcoming to everyone the IVU way.

We also had our presentation by PappaSmurg very interesting and informative about keebs. he explained about the different types that there are, also functionality , styles and much more great info about it, if you are interested about it, we have the presentation and slide show at our youtube channel: Irvine Underground.

Defcon is around the corner getting closer and closer, everyone get more exciting about, some already packed while others have a master plan, but overall everyone is super ready for it, It a marvelous event, that nobody should miss and have to experience at least once in a life time.

We expect get more exciting presentations in the future so don’t miss it. Everyone is invited and also bring a friend, acquaintance, coworker or anybody who want to experience IVU.

By black drako

This month meeting was great as usual, we were missing some regular members, but we also got a bunch of new people joining the group. The meeting started a little slow but pretty soon it got very busy with the usual people and the new ones.

Reminder for defcon. With only a few month away, again a good recommendation for those that haven’t been there yet. It’s a great experience for anybody in the technological world. Also remember that we have another events coming as maker fair, layer one.

This last meet up fire up with really good topics and Howard’s surprise presentation that was very informative, you can go to the IVU YTchannel (irvine underground) and check it out,(or name of the video: IVU TALK APRIL 2019).

AI news were talked about, since this technology is been evolving really quick. This technology is been use to automate machinery, software task, personal assistant and so for. This is a great opportunity for anybody with computer science mayors, engineers or anybody that wants to get involve in it.

Jobs in cyber security were discuss also at the meeting, There will always be opportunities at this sector, its a rapidly growing industry that is in great demand of software engineers, so good skills, and knowledge can land you in a good career in the long run.

We talked about planning in participating in the group, we invite every one to participate with a presentation of your favorite topic as: about your job,mayor or anything, share the knowledge with the group giving us a taste of what you know, since we know every one it’s expert at something you like. Or bring some one from a company to give a talk. We also encourage people to bring your projects, hardware or software and tell us about it. You can also bring in a piece of new tech of software that you discover and share it with us.

There also was a conversation and how to give a presentation, and we decide that the best way to give a presentation is just giving your first presentation after that is much easier and you get better, so presenting any topic and sharing it will always help to be a better presentator.

It was amazing how many ideas pop up in this discussion. Every one had fun,learned and share points of view. So keep coming to the meet up and invite your friends. It’s a great place to express your ideas and points of views with like minded people.

Don’t miss the next meeting.

Reminder for DEFCON with only a 153 days until the event. It is highly recommended for anybody that hasn’t gone yet. Experience the adventure, the knowledge, meet new people, and of course the parties. If you want to know more about DEFCON, ask anybody at IVU who has gone or find your favorite hacker scene friend and inquire. Also joining the IVU Slack instance may be an option – once in you can ask “Callie” about the events list, you don’t know who is callie join slack and find out. Callie will let you know and remind you of the upcoming events as: Maker Fair, Layer one and others.

During the 03/08/19 meet up we were planning additional presentations, getting fresh ideas put on our list and trying to find speakers outside IVU. Also we encouraged some members to participate giving a talk about their favorite topics or any kind of info to be share. Any suggestions are welcome at the meeting.

Some suggestions were given at the meeting as OWASP top 10 security risk, also a 101 series about different topics as infosec, programming, engineering, electronics, making, code practices, network, or any technology related. Since basics are always important this will open an array of talks. Keep checking back for updates on the progress.

Also one of our members brought his car computer board. We were able to take it apart since it got wet somehow and we got to see the board and discuss it. How could this be fixed in case of water damage? Luckily in this case in everything was fine.

We saw a frequency project brought by a student, it was a interesting experiment to learn from.

People were interested in soldering. We had some equipment for it, this could be a topic for another presentation.

Our main meeting presentation was about 3D printing and showing everyone that now is the time to start 3D printing projects. Why? Because the technology is becoming cheaper everyday. It looks scary but it’s still a computer board that can be programmed, configured, and solder according to your spec. the technology It’s becoming very simple to work with, after all these advantages the only problem is going to be what are you going to print next.

환영 IVU!

Summer is in full swing and with Black Hat/DEF CON around the corner it looks to be a busy next couple of weeks for the hacking community.

Pre-IVU meeting at Gulliver’s and El Torito was as welcoming as ever and enjoyed by all that joined.

Ben made his IVU presentation debut with a talk on the currently available Host-based Intrusion Detection Systems (HIDS) and some of the pros and cons that they offer. Some of the HIDS brought up were Snort, OSSEC, and AIDE. Ben’s slides can be viewed here.

Also speaking was Kyle about the cryptography on the IVU Challenge Coin. The crypto was devised by Israel Torres for the coin and has been wracking peoples brains on trying to figure it out for the past couple of months with only the vaguest hints. Well, the crypto was found out and Kyle provided a talk on the general topic of cryptography, from a brief history, to basic math on crypto, and finally basic techniques used to break the IVU crypto and discover its hidden meaning. Kyle also showed his Python tool for encrypting and decrypting the code which can be found on GitHub. Kyle’s slides can be found here.

While DEF CON will be meeting on August 9-12 that doesn’t mean there won’t be an IVU for the people that are not attending DEF CON. So we hope the people going have a safe trip and we’ll see the rest of you meeting up for IVU on August 10th!

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Желанный IVU!

The days are getting longer and the nights warmer so summer is just around the corner in our desert.

The pre-meeting gathered at Gulliver’s and were joined by the infamous israeltorres in his triumphant return back. Drinks, cigars, and the giant sampler platter was enjoyed.

Howard made another presentation with the topic of social engineering normal people in thinking hackers are just as normal, a.k.a. social/business networking tips. Howard brought up how, yes, it can be difficult for most of us, but it’s not impossible to learn and understand small talk, general interaction, and even had cheat codes available. All of this was done with massive amount of heckling.

After initial talk a handful of older members brought in some extra insights on networking and also gave Howard some good presentation tips as well to smooth out some of the bumps.

The rest of the night was filled with more intermingling among friends and lasted till the wee hours of the night.

We all hope you have a great month and can’t wait to see everyone at the next meeting on July 13th!

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Hopefully everyone has had a good time with the strange weather over the past month as it’s ranged from uncomfortably warm or cold and almost raining in the desert oasis.

The pre-meeting gathered a smaller group at Gulliver’s with the skies temping rain and then moved to El Torito in the last hour before heading for the this months meeting.

A small overview of DEFCON 26 was presented by a couple people as a way to encourage people to come and visit the Hacker Stickers booth.

LayerOne is also around the corner in case you can’t make it to Vegas and Pasadena is an easier option for someone not needing a full DEFCON experience but still wants to visit a Hacker Stickers booth. 😉

Jonathan Wash presented a talk on a little known topic of alcohol. More specifically cocktail he thinks are easy and delicious to order at the watering hole of your choice or even at home for personal drinks or parties. Some of the drinks included a French 75, a Negoni, a Black Russian, and even a hair of the dog bonus “cocktail”. The slides for the talk with recipes can be found here.

Hopefully we’ll see some of you at LayerOne later this month but if not come one and all for the next IVU on June 8th!

Fáilte IVU!

Hopefully everyone has had a good time with the strange weather over the past month as it’s ranged from uncomfortably warm or cold and almost raining in the desert oasis.

The pre-meeting gathered a smaller group at Gulliver’s with the skies temping rain and then moved to El Torito in the last hour before heading for the this months meeting.

A small overview of DEFCON 26 was presented by a couple people as a way to encourage people to come and visit the Hacker Stickers booth.

LayerOne is also around the corner in case you can’t make it to Vegas and Pasadena is an easier option for someone not needing a full DEFCON experience but still wants to visit a Hacker Stickers booth. 😉

Jonathan Wash presented a talk on a little known topic of alcohol. More specifically cocktail he thinks are easy and delicious to order at the watering hole of your choice or even at home for personal drinks or parties. Some of the drinks included a French 75, a Negoni, a Black Russian, and even a hair of the dog bonus “cocktail”. The slides for the talk with recipes can be found here.

Hopefully we’ll see some of you at LayerOne later this month but if not come one and all for the next IVU on June 8th!

BIpIv’a’ IVU!

With daylight savings time in full swing the days are starting to get longer and so the weather is starting to turn warm again in our fine desert oasis.

Pre-meeting was enjoyed by all with Dutch courage and food at Gulliver’s and El Torito.

Howard “yxais” went for a hat trick presentation on his continued process of getting started and running a Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) team from the ground up.

He brought up the challenges he and his team has gone through competing, processes to help learn from mistakes (documentation FTW!), gathering support and sponsors, and setting up a beginner CTF for people inside the group (and out) to learn about some of techniques in the competition.

The rest of the meeting was social talking that included a possible future IVU bottle share for with the beer loving members. If you’re interested in joining up please let us know in the Slack channel.

Please set your calendars for the next meeting in May on the 11th!

Yōkoso IVU!

The weather was still cool for the meeting but nothing a outdoor space heater or an IHOP can’t fix.

The usual imbibing of drinks, food, and good company at Gulliver’s and El Torito was had and enjoyed by the participants.

The March meeting was a little laid back as trash1e presented a basic overview of Amazon Web Services and showing what is offered from Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for straight server instances, to Lambda serverless computing for running code in an event-driven way, to Simple Storage Service (S3) for storage needs.

The rest of the night was filled with more discussions and idea sharing as always.

Also in March from the 8th to the 11th was the 16th annual Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE 16x), which a few IVU’s attended to learn, talk in hallway con, and help spread some OSS love. On Saturday night there was Game Night with plenty of food, drinks, and of course games including an Escape Room where DC 562 members and IVU members joined together and kicked the room’s butt with a blistering time of 3 minutes and 43 seconds that was not beaten by anyone else.

We hope that everyone has a good rest of their March and are looking forward to the next meeting on April 13th.

Salutations IVU.

This months meet up was a good social gathering. There more new faces in the crowd and more first timers. The UCI numbers continue to increase. There was a small pre meet up at El Torito prior. There were no speakers for this months gathering, but there were plenty of discussions around the table. AST Cell talked a bit about DEFCON Beijing and his future attendance. Yaxis described is fear of going back to China.

As the conversation started to turn AST Cell began to scare the young ones opening the forum to discussions of goatse and Pool 2 girl. We shared photos and a little bit of history. We talked about the possibility of a Pool 2 Girl badge for DEFCON briefly. More historical photos can be found at Hackerphotos.com. Pictures have been collected and curated since Defcon 8.

Blackdrako shared some of his projects including the IVU Badge Pi and opened discussions about a hacker space for the group.

The next meet up is March 9th. Hope to see you there!

Happy new year IVU!

The holidays are over and the new year is here so welcome 2018!

It was a chilly night with the pre-meeting of cigars and drinks around the fire at Gulliver’s and then more drinks and food at El Torito where it was quite packed so we got the VIP balcony seats, oh yeah. 😉

A short talk was given by our own Jorge Dominguez, a.k.a. Blackdrako, on his current project of integrating a Raspberry Pi and Google AIY Voice based system inside of a bound book case. Many laughs were had at Google expense trying to force it to speak different languages and making “Ricky” its wife.

Ending the talk a Google AIY Voice kit was raffled off and after a tedious amount of waiting, or at least that is what the losers felt, Kelvin Brandon had the winning number and took the prize he was already holding.
The rest of the night was filled with discussions and trying to not crash the drone Jorge also brought too much.

The year has just started here and if you weren’t able to make it this month please just us next month on February 9th!

Bienvenido IVU!

With Thanksgiving behind us and a handful of major holidays coming up it’s time for relaxation and cheer to be spread around and have our last meeting of the year.

Pre-meeting meetup was filled with talks of the impending doom of net neutrality repeal and our dismay of no mini hamburgers at 6:30 as promised!

But drinks were imbibed, other food ordered, and our chats civilized as always.

One of our newest attendees, Calvin Slater, took the spotlight this month to show off how he and his company setup and help companies control their HAVC, alarm, and other IoT/microcontroller enabled systems. He included some micro-controllers to display and showed how a basic system would be setup and have hundreds to thousands of sensors within ducting and rooms to control and monitor the environment(s). Calvin also brought up the possible future of these systems to include Raspberry Pi like SOCs, Arduino controllers, and software like Node-RED to program these new systems in the future.

Everyone please have a great rest of your holidays and a happy new year and we hope to see you on January 12th!

Gi nathlam hí IVU!

The holiday are upon us and with it comes early darkness, cool nights, and relaxed attitudes enjoying the festivities.

Pre-meeting was at Gulliver’s with lots of new faces for cigars, drinks, food, and even a car chase.

Howard once again was the focus of the meeting but not he was not solo this time as he brought some of his Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) team to introduce themselves and the whole meeting was filled with answering questions and giving insights to the team as they were competing in their first competition soon.

Also IVU doesn’t just only meet on the second Friday of the month. We also plan nice outings which include going to a firing range to shoot some pistols like we did on the 3rd at Firing-Line Indoor Shooting in Huntington Beach (http://www.firingline.net).

The pistols ranged from .22 revolvers up to .45 semi-autos with everyone enjoying a little time with all of them.

We even had a friendly little competition at the end with each person having only 6 rounds and a small target pushed all the way down the range (~100 feet) and of course beginners luck kicked in and Howard won the match with 33 points!

Till next time, December 8th, and we hope to see everyone there!

Salutations IVU!

It was an unusually warm and moist Friday the 13^th meetup this month. We had a more intimate showing for the pre-meet for cigars and cocktails (and wine) at Gulliver’s. The pre-meet decided to do a throwback for the last hour of pre-meet and head over to El Torito for a few margaritas. Social lubrication intensified further before kicking things off for the official October 2017 IVU meetup.

This month’s meetup saw many new faces! Our group continues to grow bit by bit with new folks as well as some that haven’t been around in a while. We had two very engaging talks by IVUers. First, yaxis lead a talk on the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) and how the first ever team is shaping up at UCI. The process revolved around gathering interest, vetting said interested parties, and building up the skills needed to compete. The video can be found at our new YouTube channel here. You can find out more about CCDC here.

DaMan treated us with the second talk of the night. The talk featured DaMans prototype F.R.E.D. Actuating Arm (Firgelli FA-400-L-12-15) using an Arduino (MEGA 2560 rev3), lasers (Adafruit VL53L0X ), and other off-the-shelf parts he’s put together a robotics system to power the opening and closing of secret doors or anything else you want to push and pull. DaMan also explained his plans to add on private Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity to control the unit remotely.

Update: DaMan has provided a video of the secret door in action!

We also saw the power of the Voltron Sloth increase this month as Red Sloth joined the meet. Sloth and Blue Sloth were pleased.

The next meet-up is November Friday November 10^th. Come and join us!

Hello IVU!

Our September meetup was swell. We had a great turn out for the pre-meet at Gulliver’s for cigars and cocktails. Plenty of good conversation and good times were had by most.

Our very own Jonathan Wash discussed Password Managers and how to learn to love randomization in passwords. The conversation covered managers such as LastPass, 1Password, Passpack, KeyPass, and Keychain. See the slides for more information: https://www.slideshare.net/secret/NXQi76ytFD61dt

As you may have heard there was a voting machine hacking village at DEFCON this year. We’ve obtained a few voting machinesand we will be presenting on them over the next few meetups. Keep an eye on our schedule to find out more information about it.

We also had another game maker, Joseph Roche, drop by and talk about his game Savage Fighter.

Our October meet up is Friday the 13th. Pre-meet as per usual. See you there!