Public Speaking is something I am very passionate about.
I believe the only reason I have achieved what I have up until now is by focusing on projects that solve hard problems. I then take that knowledge and try to present it in ways that helps others solve their problems.
I believe that it does not matter how much a person may know if that information cannot be transferred to others. Good communication skills may be the most important skill to have.
I've been internationally recognized for contributions to web development, open source, and computer networks.
After graduating valedictorian for my major, I enter the workforce writing embedded Navy test software. Later, I wrote embedded Army test software.
Frustrated by other online finance calculators, I launch the privacy-focused Pay Down Calc. It appeared on the Reddit front page the next day.
I published Packet Sender to GitHub. That same year it became listed in "Top 100 New Open Source Projects" —A list that includes Microsoft Visual Studio Code. The next year, I was a finalist for EC-Council's "Innovative Security Project of the Year" award.
Packet Sender now exceeds 400 downloads/day. It is available through Windows, Mac, and Linux package managers. It is cited by college classrooms, conference lectures, and official documentation for major projects.
In the past 2 years, I have presented at Black Hat, DEF CON, IEEE, ShmooCon, and added Europe to my speaking list.
Finally, a presentation about testing that has actual examples, immediate tools that can be used, and some really interesting and unexpected ways that code can break. The presentation attempts to be add humor and discuss testing techniques in a way that all skills levels can learn.
A foundational component of communication between devices is the TCP/IP network stack. Web browsing, streaming video, secure control, and innumerable other applications are built upon this technology. This 2-part demonstration will use open source tools to focus on the data transfer components UDP and TCP while targeting an IoT device. Part 1 is reverse-engineering the network commands to better understand them and then mimic it (a common attack strategy). Network protocols will be discussed during this process. Armed with our new knowledge and skills, part 2 will take them a step further to discover and analyze malware present on the IoT device. This presentation is light on slides and heavy on demos.
Lessons learned from 15 years of writing software. A soft-talk designed for the aspiring professional.
Far too often developers only test their apps in perfect conditions. As such, during development the app is blazing fast. To be clear, I do not fault this setup. You want your developers to have powerful tools. Hardware is cheap. Developers are expensive.
Unfortunately, when the app is finally delivered, conditions are no longer perfect. What happens to the app when packets 1, 2, 3 actually arrive as 1, 1, 2, 2, 3? What happens when network degradation is sudden? Can the app handle this? Can the app recover afterwards?
Overcoming network performance issues is something very important to me. In this demo-heavy speech, I will show why it should be important to you.
Originally printed in Net Magazine and since updated to follow best practices. This presentation covers the basic building blocks of a modern web site. It sets up Bootstrap, configures Laravel, covers cache-busting, a proof-of-concept JS memory leak (yes, JavaScript can memory-leak), HTML5 input types, and some basic packaging techniques.
10 years of experience wrangling QWidets, QTcpSockets, and other tools had made me very knowledgeable
of this extermely useful SDK. Allow me to demonstrate the broad strokes so you can make use of it.
Then let me show you how to make it cross-platform!
"Dry wit" is the running theme with all my toastmasters talks. Allow me to tell you everything that
went wrong in my trip to Paris. Better yet, how about a bad idea from college?
May I evaluate your own speech? My evaluations are full of respectful, tangible suggestions.
My credentials are CC, PM4.
Delivered on the topic of your choice.
8 years writing commercial software and 8 years writing government software has given me insight. This is a discussion of pros, cons, compares, and contrasts.
Can you succeed with Open Source? Do you understand all the licenses... which to use, which to avoid depending on your goals? This talk should make things clearer.
Whether you are developing a project or building a community, consider one of my talks. Every talk is adapted for the event.
Packet Sender is a great utility for doing all your UDP and TCP needs. I've used it countless times to control hardware, interface with software services, and monitor their responses. Thanks for making and supporting this awesome utility -- it has saved me so much time.
Dan is a well versed speaker that engages his audience using a variety of topics. He utilizes humor and wit to provide enjoyable and educational speeches that leave a lasting impression. I would highly recommend him for your next event!
I really can’t speak more highly of Dan’s skills as a software developer and also as an expert communicator. His presentations are engaging and brimming with actionable content with his personal twist and flair. Packet Sender has been a godsend in the field with the power and flexibility it provides across the network while being intuitive and well designed; it really is a must have for any network professional. Dan is a real tour de force and a phenomenal asset for the software development and cybersecurity spaces.
Dan introduced me to Packet Sender during my time as a Cybersecurity Manager seeking resources to provide user education and testing capabilities. To say that I was impressed was an understatement! Having tools that readily will test APIs, perform Malware analysis, and testing network congestion by replaying many different types of traffic (TCP _AND_ UDP) is a true gift, and even better- it's free. Dan is doing a tremendous duty for the cybersecurity community.
Thank you for your contribution to the HATS Board. Your incredible work on the website as well as stepping up as emcee for our annual event was amazing! I still receive a tremendous amount of positive feedback about the website as well as your ability to engage the audience during the event.
Packet Sender is a must have in every security researchers tool kit. It allows easily recording and sending UDP and TCP packets. It is a great help when analyzing malware communication and reversing their protocols.
I'm an avid reader. Mostly Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Check out my collection of reviews.
Projects in active development that may be publicly viewed.
Send me your Gigs, Questions, and Ideas!
You may also send me encrypted (OpenPGP) email using my public key.