Breaking Down Bias in the Cyber Stack
Kaleeque Pierce, Jess Hoffman
Blacks in Cyber Village @ DEF CON 33 · Day 1 · Blacks in Cyber Village
In "Breaking Down Bias in the Cyber Stack," Kaleeque Pierce and Jess Hoffman deliver a vital and interactive conversation exploring how systemic bias profoundly influences every facet of the cybersecurity industry, from initial **threat modeling** and **security posture** to crucial aspects like **hiring practices** and **organizational policy**. This marks the third consecutive year the duo has teamed up at Defcon, building on previous discussions about the impact of redlining on technological access and the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace.
AI review
A competent community panel that does what it sets out to do: surface how systemic bias shapes team dynamics, hiring, and organizational security culture in ways the industry rarely discusses on a main stage. The Blacks in Cyber Village is the right lane for this content, and the interactive persona exercise is a genuinely useful pedagogical device. But the ideas stay at the level of 'bias is bad and here's why it matters for security' without producing new frameworks, data, or transferable tools that would make this stick beyond the room.