Deb Wigley is the Director of Kindness and Generosity for Black Hills Information Security (BHIS). She joined the team in 2019 after celebrating 20 years of working in customer engagement and satisfaction in the Automotive Industry. She brings her passion for helping and serving people to the work she does at BHIS. The part of her role she enjoys the most is interacting with the community through our webcasts and educational content, our Discord servers, and conferences. She loves being a mom to her four kiddos and in her spare time, she enjoys reading, hiking, frequently entertaining a beach day, and being whisked away on rewilding adventures with her husband of 20+ years as much as possible.

Jason Blanchard has been happily adopted into the hacker community at Black Hills Information Security (BHIS) since 2019, even though he “works in marketing.” He’s had every dream job imaginable: teaching filmmaking, owning the world’s most famous comic book store, and fostering the infosec community efforts for SANS. While some at BHIS call him the “Director of Excitement,” he is formally known as the Excitement Co-Creator. In his day-to-day work of “sucking at capitalism,” Jason enjoys helping others, sharing his knowledge, and giving away lots of free stuff. When he’s not working, Jason spends time with his wife and daughter, hosts a semiweekly job-hunting Twitch stream, and enjoys writing short stories and performing stand-up comedy.

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.

Alyssa Snow began working at Black Hills Information Security (BHIS) in March 2022 as a Security Consultant. Previously working on an internal offensive security team at Teradata, she now performs penetration tests to help BHIS customers identify risk and improve their security posture. Alyssa says she chose to work at BHIS because she has been inspired by the team full of people who are passionate about security and educating the community. She thinks the best part is constantly getting exposed to new challenges. Outside of work, Alyssa can be found working out, spending time with loved ones, and getting outdoors as much as possible.

Ashley Knowles joined Black Hills Information Security (BHIS) in Fall 2021. As a Security Consultant, Ashley’s role is to perform network (internal/external), social engineering, and cloud penetration tests, as well as participating in red team assessments. Since joining the infosec community in 2013, she has developed and taught hacking classes, worked as a security consultant, and been a team lead on a red team. Ashley serves as a mentor at a local high school’s cyber security class and, as someone who loves to learn and teach, she looks forward to developing and teaching classes that add to BHIS’s educational catalogue. In her free time, Ashely enjoys photography, hiking and exploring new places with her kids, and building Legos.

Ben Bowman is a BHIS Security Consultant who joined in 2023, bringing research experience from Madison Cyber Labs and a longtime passion for the company, and who enjoys learning from his team while spending his free time fishing, swimming, and spelunking.

Brett Jones joined Black Hills Information Security (BHIS) in February 2025 as a Security Consultant. In this role, he performs penetration testing, working with companies to ensure their networks are secure. Previously, Brett was in the Army for 11 years conducting Offensive Cyber Operations. He came to BHIS through SkillBridge, a program that connects service members with real-world training and work experience in high-demand fields before their military discharge. Brett was drawn to BHIS through the sense of fellowship and camaraderie exhibited by BHIS employees and the online BHIS community. He is actively involved within the community, regularly joining Antisyphon Ask Me Anythings (AMA’s) and sharing his knowledge and experience with others to help everyone grow and succeed. Outside work, Brett enjoys reading books, playing video games, and working on his personal fitness.

Bryan Strand began working for Black Hills Information Security (BHIS) in 2017 as a Manager of Business Capture and a Consultant. Prior to joining the team at BHIS, he worked in a variety of fields including psychology, sales, and aviation. Currently, Bryan is responsible for communicating with clients and guiding them toward a better security posture. Bryan and John have known each other for more than 30 years, and when an opportunity became available at BHIS, he couldn’t pass up working with his family. Bryan loves his team and loves helping to create environments that others would want to work in every day. Away from work, Bryan enjoys reading, being outdoors, and spending time with family and friends.

Chris Traynor is a Security Consultant at Black Hills Information Security (BHIS), where he is responsible for Pentesting web apps, mobile app, APIs, and networks. He has also authored two cybersecurity classes (Offensive Tooling Foundations and Offensive Tooling for Operators) which he teaches via Antisyphon Training. Chris has nearly two decades of experience in Web/Mobile development, QA automation, and Penetration Testing. He thinks the best part of working at BHIS is being surrounded by some of the best minds in the industry (and getting paid to break stuff). When he’s not hard at work, Chris enjoys adventuring with his wife and daughters, exercising, and walking with his dog.

Ethan Robish has worked with Black Hills Information Security (BHIS) since 2008 — first as an intern and then as a full-time Security Consultant starting in 2012. In his current role as a Threat Hunter, Ethan is involved with customer engagement, research, working with Active Countermeasures’ AC-Hunter, as well as improving BHIS HTOC and SOC offerings. Previously, he implemented defensive security solutions for the Exchange Online security team as a Microsoft intern. While in college, he competed in the International Collegiate Programming Competition (ICPC) World Finals. In his time off, he enjoys cooking, playing the piano, and reading fantasy novels.

Kaitlyn Wimberley became an official part of Black Hills Information Security (BHIS) in March 2022, after being a long-time Community Leader on the BHIS Discord server. She started on the SOC side as an Consultant doing “whatever anyone will let me do to help the good guys win more and the bad guys win less,” and has recently switched over to the Security Consultant team. She chose BHIS because of the goodness and generosity in the things she saw from them (and because everyone there is “crazy smart and inspiring”). She loves doing good things with great people, as well as the encouragement she receives in both her professional and personal growth. Outside of work, Kaitlyn enjoys making music, playing video games, learning anything about everything, and going on family adventures.

Keith joined the ACM team in 2018 and describes his career at Active Countermeasures as his dream job. His fascination with computing and processes stems from working with his first personal computer in 1982; a TI-99/4A. Keith sees himself as fortunate for the opportunity to apply his passion towards a career that assists in the advance of technology. Beyond computing and electronics, Keith also enjoys anything with an engine, wheels, or wings.

Logan Bender joined Black Hills Information Security (BHIS) as a Business Consultant in September 2021. Previously working as a technology advisor, Logan now advises clients on BHIS’s services and provides recommendations for improving security posture. He is excited to be part of an organization that is so involved in providing quality security content to the community, and he loves the team and helpful culture at BHIS. When he’s not working, Logan can be found in the great outdoors — camping, fishing, hunting, golfing, or snowboarding.

Patterson Cake joined the Black Hills Information Security (BHIS) pirate ship in June of 2023 as a Security Consultant focusing primarily on detection engineering and digital forensics and incident response. He chose BHIS because, to paraphrase, “doing cool stuff with cool people” and “making the world a better/safer place” is exactly how he wants to spend his professional time and energy. It also helps that he has a bit of history with a couple of awesome folks that have been with BHIS for many moons. Prior to joining the team, Patterson helped build and lead a DFIR practice for an MSSP, worked as a senior security engineer for AWS Managed Services, and spent several years in enterprise cybersecurity, often healthcare related, focusing on intermingling offensive security and incident response in technical and leadership roles. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his family, which often involves motorcycles, outdoor sports, movies, and music.

Ryan Poirier began his time at Black Hills Information Security (BHIS) as the Video Producer and Editor in August 2020. Ryan polishes and perfects every webcast, podcast, and workshop on the BHIS, ACM, and WWHF YouTube Channels. Prior to Ryan’s time at BHIS, he worked for one of the largest public schools in the United States, conducting their video production and live broadcasting. He joined the BHIS team because he felt like it would be a great group of people to work with, and he couldn’t pass up the perfect next step in his career. Outside of his time with BHIS, Ryan does freelance photography, attends Cars & Coffee events, and expands his knowledge of audio and videos.

Tom Smith joined the Black Hills Information Security (BHIS) team in 2021 as a Business Consultant. He works with clients to identify their correct testing solution needs and proposal requests. Prior to his time at BHIS, he directed a business operations team in real estate. He decided it was time to make the switch when he realized he could work from home and fell in love with the energy at BHIS. Outside his time at work, he is a father to seven children, enjoys reading, playing guitar, and home improvement projects.

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.

William Corbin is a SOC Operator at Black Hills Information Security, where he investigates alerts and triages potential threats across a diverse customer base. Over the past year, he has specialized in Detection Engineering, building and tuning detection rules to improve threat coverage across client environments. Before joining BHIS in 2024, William spent most of his career as a chef – a background that gave him a sharp eye for detail and the ability to stay composed under pressure. When he’s not working, William enjoys playing guitar and bass, reading, and playing video games.