Kansas City Security Community

Each week, we’ll highlight a major city in the US and cover the places and events you can go to in that area to get your security information fix. This post is part of the information security communities.

The Heart of America, Kansas City. If you like great music or want a taste of that special KC barbeque, this is the town to be in. Another reason to visit are the great security pros that call this city home. Here are some local professional groups you can mingle with while in KC.

• OWASP Kansas City Local Chapter – With the next meet still a ways off (October 2010), you can still make it to attend or even present. Attendance is free after all. You can read their mailing list or click through the link above for details on past meetings.
• ISSA – Kansas City – Another premier security group, ISSA hold regular trainings, meetings and networking events. You can check out their past events or read the latest newsletter. Next meeting is on Sept. 23.
• Kansas City Chapter of ISACA – The upcoming meeting at September 9th is a great way to meet other ISACA members in the area. Catch up through their newsletter or glance at the schedule of upcoming events.
• InfraGard Midwest – An FBI-supported group, InfraGard is out to protect the homeland’s infrastructure through a private-public relationship.

Interested in a less formal atmosphere? Here are some local meetings for ya.

• DC816 – A DefCon group headed by Subz$r%. Not much info here, you might want to mail him using the link we gave for more details.
• Greater Kansas City 2600 – Meetings for this group are usually held on the first Friday of the month at the Oak Park food court.

There’s also a very creative group of people hosting a hackerspace in KC.

• The Cowtown Computer Congress – It’s one great bunch and they even had a Mini-Maker Faire and an OMGWTFBBQ a while back. Recent projects include a homemade cotton candy machine and marshmallow shooter kits. Check out their mailing list here.
• KC2600 – Your regional hacking and information security resource for the local Kansas City area

Finally, there are some security events you can watch out for.

• Cyber RAID-0 – KC’s first cyber warfare event will be held on September 16th. So get those fingers cracking and see if you have what it takes to beat the system.
• BSides KC – BSides is there to handle your post Cyber-RAID trauma (or victory, as the case may be). You’ll get talks, discussions and more.

Ax0n, a guy I met at Black Hat USA runs HiR Information Report, and he often covers the local Kansas City security events. He also maintains the KC Tech Events google shared calendar.