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Physiology

The Beatless Beat Writer: The Physiology of the Crimson Tide – Sports Illustrated

Its so quiet.

That was the thought that filled my head as I drove around campus on Friday morning. As emails from the University of Alabama fill students inboxes pleading them not to return from spring break, the campus remains free of the chatter of students and the life that they bring with them.

If students are the crimson blood that brings life into the campus, then Alabama athletics are the lungs that provide that same blood with oxygen and therefore, life.

With both the blood and the lungs currently incapacitated, campus is dead.

I dont mean that in a doomsday, apocalyptic sense. Only temporarily. With all spring sports cancelled, however, there is still one hope that can bring the University of Alabama back from the dead.

Alabama athletics can breathe new life into campus once again.

Now, while I am sitting here on the topic of comparing the human body to the UA campus, it is by pure perfect coincidence that I stumble across this tweet from Big Al on social media:

Listen to the crowd. The eruption. The life. But there is one important sound that happens in the very beginning of the video, as the pulsating crimson LEDs inject atmosphere into Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Did you hear it?

Listen carefully.

Can you hear it now?

That is the sound of a heartbeat.

Alabama athletics and its student-athletes are the lungs of campus, students are the blood, and the stadiums are the heart. They circulate the newly-oxygenated and rejuvenated students throughout their daily lives. They motivate them. Empower them.

This applies not only to the students, though. While the students are the rowdiest section of the stadium, the overall Crimson Tide fanbase is reinvigorated by the stadiums on the campus of UA.

Now, I am not just referring to Bryant-Denny Stadium. I am referring to all of them. Coleman Coliseum. Rhoads Stadium. Sewell-Thomas Stadium. Alabama Soccer Stadium. Alabama Aquatic Center. Roberta Alison Baumgardner Tennis Facility.

These hearts beat to the rhythm of its fanbase when filled with blood. So many historic moments and iconic players have entered and performed for its fans on their fields, courts and in their pools.

This is no one-way street, though. While Alabama athletics and their stadiums provide the metaphorical oxygen to invigorate its students and fans, those same students and fans provide the life in the heart and the lungs.

While the campus might remain quiet for the foreseeable future, the hope that Alabama athletics will once again breathe new life into campus is far from gone.

While we all might miss them now, we all know deep down that we will see them again.

A body cannot last long without its heart and lungs, but trust me when I say that before we know it, the Crimson Tide will bring us joy once again.

The Beatless Beat Writer is a series of stories by BamaCentral's own Joey Blackwell. The series is meant to reflect and discuss Alabama athletics and its fans in Tuscaloosa during the current pandemic.

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The Beatless Beat Writer: The Physiology of the Crimson Tide - Sports Illustrated

Physiology

COVID-19: Fitness experts offer advice for fighting off the Quarantine 15 – The Sudbury Star

Deanna Harder, a CSEP (Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology) certified personal trainer in Edmonton poses for a picture at Custom Fit Training in Edmonton on March 18, 2020. Derek Van Diest / Postmedia

It is being called the Quarantine 15 in social media circles: the weight some are expecting to gain during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With gyms and leisure centres throughout Edmonton closed, there is concern self-isolation will be detrimental to an active lifestyle.

According to some fitness experts, however, that doesnt have to be the case, with numerous types of home workouts available.

I want to let everybody know that your body isnt made or broken in a few weeks or a few months, said Deanna Harder, a CSEP (Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology) certified personal trainer in the city. So just like building muscle takes years and years and years, atrophy in muscle is going to take a little bit of time. Its not going to happen overnight.

You can maintain your body fitness by body-weight exercise or light dumbbell work and just by keeping your stress low and managing your nutrition. You dont need to be going hard every day. I like to tell people, youre not going to make or break your body in a few weeks of not hitting the gym hard. In fact, your body may welcome the change of pace and the change of stimulus. Your gains are not going to be lost in a couple of weeks of staying home.

Harder understands these are stressful times for everyone with the uncertainty ahead due to the world-wide pandemic. Physical activity helps alleviate stress at the best of times and when it is taken away in the form of facility closures, it may only add to anxiety.

The thing is, the first couple days, you might want to eat a little bit of extra chocolate and sugar because youre stressed out and because its like a snow day, Harder said. You can treat it as a little bit of a holiday, a little bit of a staycation, but then weve got to get some structure in our day, like having a healthy breakfast and getting into a regular routine; your showering routine, put on your makeup, put on your clothes, make yourself feel better, your self-esteem will really appreciate that.

And then add in a structured workout starting as soon as you feel good again. There might be a few days where, like my myself, Ive stocked up on a few bottles of wine and some dark chocolate because I also know that comfort is something we all need right now and this isnt going to last forever. If we cant be out in the in the world working on our fitness at a big global gym, why not take this time to focus on nutrition and focus on eating healthier.

Jeff Woods, owner of Custom Fit Training in Edmonton poses for a photo on March 18, 2020. Derek Van Diest / Postmedia

A key issue with self-isolation at home is the access to food at all times. Maintaining a healthy diet is key to fighting off the Quarantine 15. It is fine to stock up on chips and frozen pizza, but as is the case under regular circumstances, moderation is important when trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Whether youre exercising or not, if youre being rational about your intake of calories, youre not going to put on copious amounts of weight, said Jeff Woods, owner of Custom Fit Training. Obviously, we still want people to exercise and you can do that going outside not being in highly populated situations. Be one with nature; that still works.

You can do bodyweight training programs, you can look at virtual options, go online, theres a million options on YouTube. I hate to sort of pass the buck, and as a professional trainer we can certainly pass on good information to people online as well, but there are some really incredible home programs that you can you can pick up the internet, and itll work just fine.

Custom Fit is a small gym catering to clients interested in one-one-one personal training. They, too, will be hit hard financially as the province attempts to get through the outbreak by practicing social distancing.

If there are any positives to be taken out of self-isolation, it may be an opportunity to change a fitness routine. Gains are often difficult to make if a routine becomes too repetitive.

Elite-level athletes work on what we call a periodization model, Woods said. Theyll work for a period of time like a six-week training block and then theyll take structured time off. They might take a week off, so that they give their body a chance to recover and actually adapt to the exercise stress, so that they get stronger.

If you keep on working out all the time and there is no structured recovery time or rest period, you can actually go the other way. If you overtrain, you can actually impede or inhibit your immune systems function. You need to exercise but in times like this, too, you want to do it in a balanced manner, because over-exercising or overtraining can have a negative effect on immunity.

No one is certain how long the self-isolation period will last, but the goal for most is to come out of it in similar condition as they went into it.

People shouldnt worry so much about body change right now, Id worry about more about maintaining your body, just maintain where youre at, Harder said. Dont worry about cutting or gaining at this point because why add extra stress to yourself? Just moderation of all foods, try to focus on maintaining your fitness and your body weight and not worry so much about losing or gaining, just living in maintenance for a minute.

dvandiest@postmedia.com

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COVID-19: Fitness experts offer advice for fighting off the Quarantine 15 - The Sudbury Star

Cell Biology

A timely Q&A with Bears tight end and ‘resident scientist’ Ben Braunecker – The Athletic

In 2016, the assembled media at Halas Hall met Ben Braunecker, an undrafted rookie tight end out of Harvard. When asked about a post-football career, which is what you ask of a Harvard grad when he enters the league, the molecular and cell biology major said he wanted to be an infectious disease doctor.

Its the brainiac, former Bears tight end Zach Miller said that spring. Infectiousdiseaseguy. So if we have any questions, I go straight to him. Were not shy. Weve already told him that, youre the guy that were coming to if we have questions. Hes working while hes not working. Hes playing football and hes working on his doctor stuff. Were waiting on Harvard shirts as a group. Thats kinda the perk of having the brainiac with us.

With the COVID-19 pandemic gripping the world, Braunecker has been fielding plenty of calls and texts from people in the NFL wanting to get his take. And why not how many football players...

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A timely Q&A with Bears tight end and 'resident scientist' Ben Braunecker - The Athletic

Immunology

Seven facts about Gloucestershires Father of Immunology Edward Jenner – Gloucestershire Live

With the frenzy that everyone has been thrown into as a result of a particular virus, you would easily be led to believe that disease has never hit Gloucestershire before.

COVID-19 does pose a real threat to the vulnerable members of our society and to our routines, and although self-isolation can sound boring and lonely, we do not have to look far when it comes to inspiration during these turbulent times.

Edward Jenner, also known as The Father of Immunology, was born in Berkeley, and it was in this Gloucestershire town that he developed the vaccine against smallpox in 1796.

Smallpox was a major infectious disease in Jenners time, and killed an estimated 400,000 Europeans in the 18th century - it caused pustules all over the victims body.

Jenner noticed that milkmaids who contracted cowpox, caused by blistering on cows udders, did not contract smallpox.

To test out his theory that those who contract cowpox are immune to smallpox, he scraped some fluid from a cowpox blister onto the cut of James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy whose father was Jenners gardener.

A blister formed on James cut, but he recovered quickly. After he had recovered, Jenner inoculated James again, but with smallpox fluid. His vaccine was successful.

Although the story of Edward Jenners smallpox discovery is one most of us learnt in school, little is widely known about the rest of his life.

Here are seven things you may not have known about the Berkeley physician.

On May 17, 1749, Edward Anthony Jenner was born to Rev Stephen Jenner and Sarah Jenner, as the eighth of their nine children.

Sadly, in 1754, both of Jenners parents passed away, and he was raised by the rest of his siblings.

After the Montgolfier brothers pioneering flights in France and similar flights in England, Jenner became fascinated by balloons.

On September 2, 1784, at 2pm, he released a hot air balloon from the courtyard of Berkeley Castle, using the expertise of someone who had launched one prior to him.

The balloon landed into Kingscote Park, in Kingscote, near Tetbury, which was owned by Anthony Kingscote at the time. It is believed that Jenner met his daughter, Catherine Kingscote, on this day.

Jenner and Catherine married in March 1788.

After Jenners balloon was relaunched from Kingscote Park, it drifted north along the hills for another fourteen miles, before coming down on the escarpment at Birdlip.

The name of the famous pub on the A417 roundabout is said to commemorate Jenners balloon flight, which ended close to the pub.

When Jenner returned to Berkeley after university, he started practising as a local doctor and surgeon.

He was known to be very dedicated to his patients, as he would travel long distances in bad weather to visit them at home.

In one instance, he nearly died when he travelled ten miles from home during a blizzard to visit a patient in Kingscote.

Although he established medical practices in Cheltenham and London later in his career, Berkeley always remained his priority.

Five investigators in England and Germany successfully tested a cowpox vaccine against smallpox more than two decades before Jenner tested his vaccination.

Furthermore, Dorset farmer Benjamin Jesty successfully vaccinated his wife and children during an epidemic in 1774.

However, Edward Jenner was the first of them all to openly conduct the experiment and demonstrate that people inoculated with cowpox were immune to smallpox as a result.

Jenner also proved that protective cowpox pus could be effectively inoculated from person to person, not just directly from cattle.

It was because of his efforts that the cowpox vaccine was adopted globally. So although he was not the first person to test it, Jenner is credited with discovering the cowpox vaccine.

Jenner had an aptitude for zoology and it was him who discovered that it was not adult cuckoos who were responsible for kicking the occupants out of the nests they had taken over, but their newborn chicks.

Jenner is also credited with furthering the understanding of angina pectoris.

In 1853, vaccination with cowpox was made free and mandatory.

The World Health Organisation launched its campaign to eradicate smallpox worldwide in 1967, and in 1980 it finally declared: Smallpox is dead!

The disease that had been most feared since ancient times had been eradicated, and it is estimated that Jenners work has saved more lives than the work of any other human.

Excerpt from:
Seven facts about Gloucestershires Father of Immunology Edward Jenner - Gloucestershire Live

Immunology

What Will Drive Bristol-Myers Squibb’s $42 Billion Revenue In 2020? – Trefis

Bristol-Myers Squibbs (NYSE: BMY)revenue grew from $19.4 billion in 2016 to $26.1 billion in 2019, and it is estimated to top $42 billion in 2020. This growth will primarily be driven by its oncology drugs portfolio, which will likely get over a 2x boost in 2020, due to the impact of the Celgene acquisition. Bristol-Myers Squibbs oncology drugs segment is expected to be the single-biggest revenue driver with $27.7 billion in revenues (66% of total revenues), which is over 3x the size of Cardiovascular, Bristol-Myers Squibbs second largest business segment, in 2020. Oncology drugs, which includes blockbuster drugs Revlimid and Opdivo, among other drugs, will be the fastest-growing segment adding $19.2 billion over 2017-20 (90% of the $21.3 billion in incremental revenues). Cardiovascular, which includes Eliquis, will add about $4.1 billion over 2017-20 (19% of the $11.5 billion in incremental revenue), and immunology drugs will add $1.0 billion (5% of incremental revenues). This will likely be offset by an expected decline of $3.0 billion (-14% of incremental revenue) in all other drugs segment. In this analysis, BMY Revenues: How Does Bristol-Myers Squibb Make Money?, we focus on Bristol-Myers Squibbs business model, its revenue segments, their historical performance, forecast for 2021, and peer comparison, parts of which are highlighted below.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) 2020 Revenues To Surge After Celgene Acquisition

BMS Has A Large Oncology Drugs Portfolio, Courtesy of Celgene

BMS Is Gaining Market Share In Cardiovascular Drugs Market

Immunology Portfolio Could See Biosimilar Competition In 2021

All Other Drugs Sales Will Continue To Decline

Impact of Coronavirus

See allTrefis Price EstimatesandDownloadTrefis Datahere

Whats behind Trefis? See How Its Powering New Collaboration and What-Ifs ForCFOs and Finance Teams|Product, R&D, and Marketing Teams

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What Will Drive Bristol-Myers Squibb's $42 Billion Revenue In 2020? - Trefis

Immunology

Development of Immunotherapy To Treat COVID-19 In Progress – Technology Networks

CEL-SCI Corporation recently announced that it is utilizing LEAPS peptide technology in efforts to develop an immunotherapy against the novel coronavirus caused by SARS-CoV-2.The technology utilizes conserved regions of the SARS-CoV-2 protein to stimulate a protective T cell response, reducing viral load. Furthermore, LEAPS can also be adopted to create peptides with antiviral and anti-inflammatory characteristics for immunotherapeutic applications. Preclinical studies have demonstrated that LEAPS immunogens are able to prevent infection by herpes simplex virus (HSV) and influenza A in animal models.Technology Networks spoke with Daniel Zimmerman, Ph.D. Senior VP of Research, Cellular Immunology at CEL-SCI Corporation, to learn more about the LEAPS technology and its potential application in treating COVID-19.Molly Campbell (MC): For our readers that are unfamiliar, please can you describe what immunotherapy entails?Daniel Zimmerman (DZ): Immunotherapy entails the administration of agents (e.g., cellular alone or better still complexes combined with another immune agent or better still with either proteins, better antibodies alone or even better still specific peptides, etc.) that activate the immune system or act to induce a desired endogenous immune response in the recipient.

Laura Lansdowne (LL): What parallels can be drawn between coronavirus and the other respiratory viruses you have previously dealt with?

DZ: The novel COVID-19 a very close cousin to SARS, and MERS is e like influenza A in that all these infect the lung and initiate tissue damaging inflammatory responses. The LEAPS (Ligand Epitope Antigen Presentation System) technology was previously used to develop immunotherapy for an influenza A (H1N1) in collaboration with the NIAID-NIH. In, these viruses target both the upper respiratory system and the lungs.

Virus replication and inflammatory responses result in the disease-causing tissue damage. Individuals whose immune system cannot defend against the virus quickly, or who overly respond to the virus with inflammation, are at highest risk of serious disease consequences, in addition to other at risk groups including elderly populations.LL: Can you elaborate on how the LEAPS peptide technology could be a tool against the COVID-19 coronavirus?DZ: Immunotherapy can be either antigen-specific or non-specific. In the case of the LEAPS Technology for the COVID-19 coronavirus, we envision an antigen-specific antigen disease specific immune therapy that uses hetero-conjugate of peptides designed to target specific viral epitopes while focusing on stimulation of the immune cells that drive the proper response.

Specific classes or sub-classes of T cells within the CD4 or CD8 categories will be targeted. These cells stimulate and may recruit other immune cells, leading to highly significant reduced virus levels and beneficial changes in cytokine (immunological hormones) profiles in the lung tissues of patients.

They either cells or cytokines may also cause lysis of virally infected cells to decrease the virus load affecting the body. It is equally important to elicit protective immune cellular responses while minimizing tissue damaging inflammation.

Our studies will build on previous immunotherapeutics that were developed against influenza A subtype H1N1 in collaboration with the NIAID-NIH. In this work, LEAPS peptides H1N1 peptides halted the progression of disease, reducing viral presence in the lung tissues and inducing cytokine profiles that provided a balance of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory regulatory responses.

In summary, LEAPS immunotherapy can be designed to stimulate the appropriate immune cells to deal with the virus infection in a balanced manner. We will be able to observe this by monitoring prevention or mitigation of viral disease and the nature of the cytokines that are present in the lung or blood after administration.

This digitally-colorized, negative-stained transmission electron microscopic (TEM) image depicts a number of Influenza A virions. Credit: Unsplash.

MC: The previous studies in collaboration with NIAID showed LEAPS peptides reduced morbidity and mortality in mice with pandemic influenza. As these are animal studies, how translational do you think the findings are to humans?

DZ: The influenza studies built on findings that arose from studies of LEAPS immunotherapies for herpes simplex virus (HSV). In these studies, the LEAPS peptides elicited equivalent immune responses in human and mouse cells. In addition, as for the influenza studies, the antigenic peptides to be selected for the LEAPS immunotherapy will be from highly conserved sequences (i.e., do not change in the virus) that are recognized by the immune systems of both humans and mice.

MC: What are the key challenges in developing an effective treatment for COVID-19?DZ: The first challenge in developing any immunotherapy is to select the peptides that contain the proper antigenic epitope sequences. These sequences need to be recognizable by the immune system in addition to the LEAPS immune cell binding ligand (ICBL) to drive the appropriate response. This has already been achieved.

Viral peptide sequences were chosen based on protein sequences that are very similar to MERS and SARS coronaviruses. The ICBL was chosen based on experience with HSV and influenza, TB, HIV and other studies, but another ICBL will also be tested as a control and to hedge our bets and expedite the development process.

MC: What are your key priorities in terms of taking a LEAPS/COVID-19 product forward?DZ: The first priority is to demonstrate that appropriate immune responses are elicited against the LEAPS immunotherapies in animal studies and then to demonstrate protection from lethal infection of Covid-19. Discussions have been initiated with several agencies and clinical research organizations (CROs) to develop studies designed to determine the potential of LEAPS immunotherapy against COVID-19 and for producing GMP grade materials for clinical studies after GLP safety studies in animals.

Daniel Zimmerman, Ph.D. Senior VP of Research, Cellular Immunology at CEL-SCI Corporation, was speaking to Molly Campbell and Laura Elizabeth Lansdowne, Science Writers, Technology Networks.

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Development of Immunotherapy To Treat COVID-19 In Progress - Technology Networks

Immunology

Invasive Fire Ant Population Could Explain Why Some States Have Fewer Cases of Red Meat Allergy – Benzinga

MILWAUKEE, March 20, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Despite the presence of the lone star tick, which is known to induce alpha-gal syndrome, cases of alpha-gal in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico are low, and it might be due to the invasive fire ant species.

Originally scheduled to be presented for the first time at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) before it was cancelled due to the situation with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), this study was developed due to a "shortage" of cases of alpha-gal syndrome in the region. Alpha-gal refers to having an allergy to a carbohydrate molecule that's found in most mammalian or "red meat" and is known to be caused from the lone star tick. Researchers conducted a survey of allergy clinics to determine if the lack of cases was due to the invasive fire ant species, who are known predators of the lone star tick.

Researchers collected survey data from allergy clinics within and north of the U.S. Department of Agriculture fire ant quarantine zone, looking at the presence of fire ant anaphylaxis cases and alpha-gal syndrome. These cases were plotted on maps that showed county-level fire ant quarantine data from 1931 to 2018. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the distribution of lone star ticks was also plotted.

A total of 87 allergy clinics provided data for the study. Before 1974, large numbers of fire ant anaphylaxis cases were reported within the quarantined area. In areas quarantined between 1974 and 2018, the cases became variable with few cases reported outside the quarantined area. Most importantly, researchers found a strong inverse correlation between cases of fire ant anaphylaxis and cases of alpha-gal syndrome within the range of lone star ticks. Essentially this means that the more fire ant anaphylaxis cases there were, the less cases of alpha-gal, and vice versa.

"What we're seeing with this data set is how two different allergy-causing species impact each other, and therefore, the type of reported symptoms we are seeing in regional allergy clinics," said Thomas A.E. Platts-Mills, MD, PhD, FAAAAI, first author of the study. "Studies like this can improve both public health and epidemiology efforts when it comes to pests that cause dangerous allergic reactions. These results may also make it possible to predict future changes in these diseases."

Visit aaaai.org to learn more about fire ant allergy and alpha-gal. This research was published in an online supplement to The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) represents allergists, asthma specialists, clinical immunologists, allied health professionals and others with a special interest in the research and treatment of allergic and immunologic diseases. Established in 1943, the AAAAI has over 7,000 members in the United States, Canada and 72 other countries. The AAAAI's Find an Allergist/Immunologist service is a trusted resource to help you find a specialist close to home.

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SOURCE The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology

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Invasive Fire Ant Population Could Explain Why Some States Have Fewer Cases of Red Meat Allergy - Benzinga

Human Behavior

The Human Hacking Conference: Year Alpha – Security Boulevard

It was early in 2019 that we started dropping hints we had something big in the works. The anticipation was high, when, in June, we made an exciting announcement. Social-Engineer.org along with Social-Engineer, LLC was going to put on their first ever, self-produced, conference; The SEVillage Presents: The Human Hacking Conference (HHC).

This never before seen conference was going to be unlike any others. This all-encompassing event offered to teach business, security, technology, and psychology professionals the latest techniques and tips from leading experts in their fields. The Workshop Trainers were announced, and with every name the excitement increased. With experts in human deception, body language analysis, cognitive agility, and intelligence research, this event was shaping up to be the most exciting event of 2020. For those of you who couldnt attend, and those who want to relive the experience, dont worry we got you! Continue reading for a breakdown of everything that was The Human Hacking Conference: Year Alpha!

Thursday Hacking the C-Level, Pentesting, Red Teaming and more!

The Human Hacking Conference kicked off bright and early Thursday, February 20. The excitement to start was high. So much so that we had one attendee had been waiting in the conference area since 6 am! After registration and some refreshments, it was time to kick off the Opening Ceremony! Chris Hadnagy, our Chief Human Hacker, lead this event by reminding of us of the core value of the HHC, leave them feeling better for having met you.

Track 1: Hacking the C-Level & Business

After the entertaining and uplifting Opening Ceremony our attendees split up to head to their track of choice. Thursday offered two speaking tracks. Track 1 was Hacking the C-Level & Business started off with our friend Perry Carpenter, who was the face of our HHC sponsor KnowBe4. As the Chief Evangelist & Strategy Officer at KnowBe4, Perry could give some sound advice on his topic, The Art and Science of Driving Secure Behaviors.

That was followed by Social-Engineer, LLCs beloved Director of Sales, Jay Korpi. Jays fun and lighthearted personality was in full force with his speech, A Meteoric Rise from Custodial Engineer to CEO and Buying The Entire 14th Floor. I mean, check out that bow tie.

Next up was Domini Clark, who is the CEO & Founder at Blackmere Consulting. She spoke on Hacking the C-SuiteFinally Declassified: How Executive Search Firms infiltrate the C-Suite, Get the Talent to Defect, and Alter the Course of Global Business. Phew. Domini captivated her audience with this topic which helped them learn how a single executive hire can change the trajectory of an entire organization.

To finish up the morning in Track 1 was Chris Hadnagy again, who we all know as the Founder and CEO at Social-Engineer, LLC. He talked about SEeing Potential in Your Team, which highlighted the importance of knowing your team and their communication styles. He also dropped some quality Dilbert cartoons.

Track 2: Pentesting

While all that was happening, Track 2 was simultaneously running the Pentesting track. Kicking off this track was Social-Engineers Chief Operating Officer, Ryan MacDougall. His topic was Which Pentest is Right for You. Ryan highlighted how each company can determine which pentest is right for their security needs, and how they can make it benefit corporate needs.

Our very first ever SECTF contestant joined us at HHC, to discuss Active Measure. Wayne Ronaldson is from Loop Secure. His fascinating talk presented a live simulated attack that showed things from the hackers perspective. He demonstrated how social engineering phishing attack morphed into a full nation-state style attack. This demonstration taught attendees how their organization can be vulnerable to attacks, and how it can damage an unprepared business.

To finish out the Pentesting Track, one of our very good friends and Sponsor of the HHC, Chris Silvers, spoke about Scaling Phish: Pentesting the SMB. Silvers, who is the Founder of CG Silvers Consulting, left the crowd with lessons on how and how not to scale your security mindset from enterprise to Small and Medium Business environments.

As the tracks came to an end everyone attending was treated to a buffet lunch that was so amazing it can only be described in photos. These lunches were provided all 3 days of the HHC, so, for all of you foodies out there, enjoy.

Track 1: Part 2

After an incredible networking lunch out in the pavilion, our attendees fought the food coma and headed back to our speaking tracks where some amazing speeches continued through the afternoon. Track 1 resumed its Hacking the C-Level & Business theme with Robert Dean. Dean is the Cyber Janitor at Deloitte, who was a sponsor of the HHC. His discussion was titled Two of Clubs. This presentation highlighted a variety of entry level resources that are non-technical, low cost, and publicly available for people and organizations. By encouraging them to research themselves for awareness and personal security, he encouraged all to aim to inspire deeper organizational discussions on the value of logical and physical security.

The stage then prepared itself for the most enthusiastic force of all, Stephanie Paul. Stephanie is the Founder of Stephanie Paul, Inc. and is one of the most dynamic human beings we have ever met. Besides being a Workshop Trainer at the HHC (more on that soon!), she also discussed Hacking Into WHY Story Works. Her tagline for this speech was Storytelling because your biology is governed by it!, and that was proven true by how captivated the audience was about her topic. So captivated that the talk went overtime before any of us realized it had happened!

To follow up that act was Business Development expert, Allie Hansen. Besides being an HHC organizer, Allie, who has 10 years of experience, enlightened the audience on how social engineering principles can be successfully utilized in business development, and what applying those principles can mean for your company.

To finish up Track 1 we had Chase Hughes, the CEO of Applied Behavior Research. His speech The Human Factor highlighted human behavior being the deciding factor in almost all of our successes and failures. Chase taught tactics that can be applied in any conversation to not only read a person but to influence them as well.

Track 2: Red Teaming

Track 2 became the Red Teaming track for the afternoon, and it kicked off with Maxie Reynolds. Maxie is a SE Consultant with Social-Engineer, LLC. Her skills boast of not only being able to perpetually annoy Chris Hadnagy, but also performing pentests, while studying quantum computing. Maxie spoke on Personalities, Perceptions, and Persuasion, detangled luck from skill, and looked at what shapes our perceptions about one another.

Ryan MacDougall gave his second speech of the day which was on SE Teaming vs. Red Teaming. His talk explored what SE Teaming is, and how it differs from Red Teaming. This talk was followed up by a second speech by Wayne Ronaldson, who highlighted the importance of these teams. His presentation, Enemy of the State discussed and demonstrated a sophisticated adversary seeking to target business intelligence using layered attack vectors to explain the impact of a real-word attack.

Finishing up Track 2 for the day was Jeremy Dodson, Director of Technical Operations at Social-Engineer, LLC. His talk was Anatomy of a Red Team. Internal red teams can be a powerful tool for any companys security posture. Jeremys talk helped the audience gain a better understanding of the benefits and limitations of an internal team. It also highlights why and when to seek an external red team service.

Social Engineering Panel

To end the first day of the HHC, we invited some of our Workshop Trainers to sit down with Chris Hadnagy for a series of lightning interviews. R Paul Wilson, Amanda Berlin, Nick Furneaux, Stephanie Paul, and Joe Navarro, each took turns answering questions and highlighting what to expect in their workshops. These lighthearted and captivating interviews became our attendees favorite part of the day.

Highlights from this segment were:

Evening Event hosted by Deloitte

Our evening event for Thursday was hosted by our ever-gracious sponsor, Deloitte. And, the staff and attendees were delighted to have Pepper the humanoid robot there. Pepper entertained the crowd by dancing, singing, taking selfies and more. Huge thank you to Deloitte for hosting the evening and bringing Pepper along!

Friday Vishing, Workshops, and Escape Rooms!

Friday morning started off at 9 am with the Keynote Address being given by Chris Hadnagy. His theme was The Next Biggest Social Engineering Vector. While for many years we have focused on phishing as the main attack vector, vishing is closing ranks on becoming more dangerous than ever. To highlight this, Shelby Dacko, a professional visher with Social-Engineer, LLC joined Chris on stage for a live demonstration. Entering a soundproof booth, the same one we use for the SECTF, Shelby called a well-known transport company, Hertz. With just one phone call that lasted 10 minutes, she managed to gain 10 flags. It very quickly became evident why her nickname inside the company is scary little human. It also happens to be her Twitter handle.

With everyone abuzz from what they had just witnessed, they went off to the very first Workshops at the HHC. Friday was the home of 4 different workshops that each attendee could choose from at the time of signup.

Joe Navarro Anyone who has met Joe knows that he is super humble. You would never know that he holds the amount of knowledge that he does. But those who took his workshop soon learned how much he had to offer. We had an overwhelming amount of people who responded to us saying that Joes workshop had changed their life.

Joe served as an FBI special agent who specialized in behavioral assessment for 25 years. He has authored 13 books, one of which tells the story of how he successfully caught an international spy. (Seriously, check out Three Minutes to Doomsday, you wont regret it!) Joes workshop on Nonverbal Communications highlighted how body language is used to assess what is said and what is being felt. One workshop attendee told us after taking Joes workshop, The things Joe teaches are material and impactful because they are part of the human condition, interesting and, best of all, usable and actionable at work and in just everyday life, too.

Dov Baron

Dov is not only a force to be reckon with, he is also an impactful human being. Everyone who met Dov was instantly attracted to his vibrant personality. Those who took his course felt that and more. Dov has been speaking internationally for more than 30 years on the evolving world of leadership. His work is so well known that is he is twice-cited as one of Inc. Magazines Top 100 Leadership Speakers. Beyond being a bestselling author of several books, he also led the workshop How to Thrive in the AI AGE! Leadership Skills in the Year 2030.

Dovs workshop focused on Human Dynamics and the hidden forces that drives all humans to achieve. With it being predicted that 40% of people will be replaced by automation in the next 15 years, Dov focuses on what to specialize in to thrive in the age of AI. He also focused on how to bond with anyone and grow the new bottom line of success.

Nick Furneaux

Nick is not only a life-long friend of the Social-Engineer family, but a well-respected expert on cyber security and digital forensics. For 25 years, Nick has consulted for companies and law enforcement institutions in the UK, Europe, the US and more. His specialties include advanced open source intelligence (OSINT) gathering techniques, Cryptocurrency crime, and RAM analysis. Nick also wrote Investigating Cryptocurrencies which is the only book in the world to teach cryptocurrency crime investigating techniques.

Nicks workshop was Can You Find the Toothbrush?, which had nothing to do with dental care. His class taught OSINT investigators to look beyond the obvious so that they could see intelligence that can easily be missed when researching online. The workshop provided not only practical methods that they could use to see the data behind the data, but also infer evidence that is missed by many researchers. One of our attendees that was in Nicks class enthusiastically told us, Nicks class was AMAZING. He is so easy to listen to and is a very interactive trainer. He is the only teacher ever that has made me excited to learn something involving math!

R Paul WilsonWith titles like elite con artist, magician, and filmmaker, R Paul has done it all. Having executed more con games than anyone in history, he is the foremost expert in cons and scams. R Pauls experience has made him an expert of how con artists think and act when manipulating their victims. This is social engineering at its most powerful.

R Paul came to the HHC to teach those who took his workshop how magicians and cheaters think. He taught how understanding deception can reveal countless strategies that can be applied to verbal and psychological manipulation. His workshop Dark Side of the Hand included expert deception using skill and sleight of hand. Attendees who took his class left saying, It opens your mind up to both the practical possibilities and dealing with the expectation of your audience in any sense.

Social Engineering Panel All Things Rapport

As if the workshops werent enough for the day, there was another Social Engineering Panel planned for the day. Sitting down with Dov Baron, Robin Dreeke, and Brittney Caldwell, our host Chris Hadnagy interviewed them on social engineering and rapport. The conversation was enlightening to all as they learned how rapport fits into multiple aspects of life. One of our favorite moments from this panel was during a moment where Robin and Dov were discussing how rapport is used to develop strong relationships. Using the HHC as an example, they highlighted how Chris has been able to use rapport to not only form relationships with these experts in their fields but got them to all come together to form this incredible event. Our host may have shed a couple of tears hearing this, but he also might have just been chopping onions.

Evening Event hosted by Living Security

Our second evening event of the HHC was hosted by Living Security, who was also a sponsor. They create game changing experiences to help provide security awareness training. And when we say, game changing, we mean it! They brought two of their escape room games for our evening event. These escape rooms were fun and engaging for everyone.

Saturday More Joe, Workshops, and Closing Ceremonies

Joe Navarro kicked off our Keynote Address on Saturday with The Five Things You Were Never Taught About Human Interaction. Following his sold-out workshop the day before, this Keynote gave everyone the ability to learn from Joe for themselves. One of our attendees said about the information he learned from Joe, Joes was excellent. After listening to him it has made people watching even more interesting.

Saturday also offered 5 different Workshops that attendees were able to participate in.

Ian Rowland

Ian is the foremost expert on Cold Reading and is famously known as The Mind Man. Helping people and companies to be more successful by teaching amazing, transformative mind skills that have practical benefits in life and in business. Hes the first and only person from outside the USA to be hired by the FBI and asked to teach cold reading and communicative skills to their field operatives.

Ians workshop How To Be Psychic explained and demonstrated the art of cold reading (for those wondering it is, Ian describes it as how to talk to complete strangers so they think youre psychic). Those attending were able to learn how to make confident statements about literally any aspect of someones life, even when you knew nothing about them. It also explained and demonstrated how some of these same communication techniques could be applied to other areas, such as business and sales. One of the SEVillage staff members said that since the Workshop, he has been trying to decide how best to use Ians work in Vishing and Impersonation pretexts.

Stephanie Paul

Stephanie is confident and takes great pride in her achievements. In the last 29 years of rich and diverse entertainment experiences has given her the ability to internally coach executives, sales teams, Tedx speakers and more. She also has an impressive resume of being an actress, stand up, sketch comedian, director, producer, writer, and public speaker.

Her Workshop was called Caution: Using Influential Communication, Seduces Profound Connection. From the beginning, Stephanies workshop was highly entertaining, fun, and interactive. Before the workshop even started, our attendees remarked how she used music and other entertainment to get everyones energy up. From there Stephanie taught simple tools to help effectively navigate communication. She explained why the tricks she learned in the entertainment trade work in the real world and why they are so effective. She then empowered her audience and encouraged them to be innovative and shape engaging messages for maximum-effect.

Robin Dreeke

Robin is the CEO of People Formula and Behavioral Analysis Expert. He also helped Chris Hadnagy write the workbook for the Advanced Practical Social Engineering class. As a former FBI Special Agent and the Chief of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, Robin became passionate about the power of trust.

Robins workshop, Code of Trust & Sizing People Up was based on Robins life work and his background. It taught the tools of rapid rapport and the craft of high-level trust. His students were able to gain a deeper understanding of the power of relationships and how those relationships are the corner stone to any progress and forward movement in every aspect of life.

Brittney Caldwell

Brittney is the owner of the The Vacation Theatre Group, a freelance actor, playwright and director. She also directs Social-Engineer, LLCs Masters Level Social Engineering course. With 15 years of experience, Brittney believes in the power of performance as a teaching tool. Using her skills as an acting coach, Brittney helps facilitate specialized training for companies and individuals to improve their own training and presentation skills.

Brittneys Workshop, Acting like a Human: The Guide to Hacking Humans with Ease, used the same techniques that actors, like herself, use to help her students feel natural and easy in real life. She taught them how to have a greater awareness of themselves in all aspects, physically, vocally, mentally, and emotionally. One student related, Brittneys class really put a new perspective on how much we use nonverbals; Especially body placement and hand gestures. I felt that the way she taught, and how the lesson progressed, really showed how much of a difference our words can have when we use emphasis, contractions, context, and emotion.

Amanda Berlin

Amanda is the Senior Security Analyst for Blumira and the CEO and owner of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Mental Health Hackers. Amanda has spent over a decade in different areas of technology and sectors providing infrastructure support, triage, and design.

Amanda is no stranger to mental health. Having dealt with her own personal struggles for a time, she realized that she not only wasnt alone, but that there were resources that can help others. Many may ask, why a mental health Workshop at a Human Hacking Conference? Because mental health affects all, even security professionals. Amandas workshop included group exercises and content from the Mental Health First Aid program. The students walked away with a better understanding of mental health issues and how to help those around them. One of students who took Amandas class remarked, Amanda touches on an important issue in our day and age, and especially in our field. She gave practical exercises to help you cope and how and when to seek help.

Closing Ceremonies

The final event of the HHC came too soon for all of us. Closing ceremonies was a dream come true for the Social-Engineer team. The discussion of having our own conference has been years in the making, so to finally be standing at the end of it was a momentous event. Chris Hadnagy spoke for the entire team and shared a slideshow highlighting the fun moments had by all. The night ended with good food, good whiskey, and friends sharing the last few moments of the Human Hacking Conference together.

As we reflect on the HHC now, here are some of our favorite moments:

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The Human Hacking Conference: Year Alpha - Security Boulevard

Human Behavior

Facebook Spreads Fake News Faster Than Any Other Social Website, According To New Research – Forbes

UKRAINE - 2020/03/18: In this photo illustration a Facebook logo is seen displayed on a smartphone. ... [+] (Photo Illustration by Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Facebook is by far the worst perpetrator when it comes to spreading fake news. Worse than Google. Worse than Twitter. And worse than webmail providers such as AOL, Yahoo!, and Gmail.

This is according to a new study published in the journal Nature: Human Behavior.

A team of researchers led by Andrew Guess of Princeton University tracked the internet use of over 3000 Americans in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election. They found Facebook to be the referrer site for untrustworthy news sources over 15% of the time. By contrast, Facebook referred users to authoritative news sites only 6% of the time.

The authors state, This pattern of differential Facebook visits immediately prior to untrustworthy website visits is not observed for Google (3.3% untrustworthy news versus 6.2% hard news) or Twitter (1% untrustworthy versus 1.5% hard news).

The graph below depicts the size of the effect.

"Referrers to untrustworthy news websites and other sources."

How much do fake news websites actually influence peoples political views and voting decisions? This, the authors admit, is harder to estimate but they believe it has a smaller impact than is widely believed.

For one, they note that changing a voters mind is an incredibly difficult feat. By one estimate, only 1-3 people out of every 10,000 change their vote choice in response to seeing a political advertisement on television. Instead, those seeking out fake news via Facebook and other referrer platforms are likely visiting those sites as a way to reaffirm already existing beliefs and opinions.

Moreover, the researchers found that while a significant portion of Americans visited at least one untrustworthy news site during the final weeks of the 2016 election campaign (44.3% to be exact), it did not replace their appetite for hard news. The authors write, Those who consume the most hard news tend to consume the most information from untrustworthy websites in other words, they appear to be complements, not substitutes.

That said, the researchers found that Trump supporters were far more likely to visit untrustworthy news sites: approximately 57% of Trump supporters read at least one fake news article in the month prior to the 2016 election compared to only 28% of Clinton supporters. Older Americans were also more likely to visit untrustworthy news websites.

Perhaps most alarming is the observed stickiness of fake news websites. The researchers estimate that people spend an average of 64 seconds consuming a fake news articles compared to only 42 seconds on verified news stories.

More research is needed to sort out the degree to which fake news can influence public opinion. Until then, the researchers conclude the following: Our results about the relationship between untrustworthy website consumption and both voter turnout and vote choice are statistically imprecise; we can only rule out very large effects.

What is clear, however, is that Facebook was a key vector of distribution for untrustworthy websites.

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Facebook Spreads Fake News Faster Than Any Other Social Website, According To New Research - Forbes

Human Behavior

This AI-based system can teach human intention to robots – Express Computer

In a bid to give machines the ability to predict intent when interacting with humans, a team at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney is developing artificial intelligence-driven prototype human-machine interface system that will assist humans to be seen not merely as tools, but as partners.

Dr Lina Yao, a senior lecturer of engineering at UNSW and principal investigator, is busy getting AI systems and human-machine interfaces up to speed with the finer nuances of human behaviour.

The ultimate goal is for her research to be used in autonomous AI systems, robots and even cyborgs, but the first step is focused on the interface between humans and intelligent machines.

What were doing in these early phases is to help machines learn to act like humans based on our daily interactions and the actions that are influenced by our own judgment and expectations so that they can be better placed to predict our intentions, Yao said in a university statement.

At the moment, AI may do a plausible job at detecting the intent of another person (in other words, after the fact).

It may even have a list of predefined, possible responses that a human will respond within a given situation. But when an AI system or machine only has a few clues or partial observations to go on, its responses can sometimes be a little robotic.

Dr Yao is working on less obvious examples of human behaviour integrated into AI systems to improve intent prediction.

Things like gestures, eye movement, posture, facial expression and even micro-expressions the tell-tale physical signs when someone reacts emotionally to a stimulus but tries to keep it hidden.

We can learn and predict what a human would like to do when theyre wearing an EEG [electroencephalogram] device, said Yao.

While wearing one of these devices, whenever the person makes a movement, their brainwaves are collected which researchers can then analyse.

Later we can ask people to think about moving with a particular action such as raising their right arm. So not actually raising the arm, but thinking about it, and we can then collect the associated brain waves, said Yao.

Recording this data has the potential to help people unable to move or communicate freely due to disability or illness.

Brain waves recorded with an EEG device could be analysed and used to move machinery such as a wheelchair, or even to communicate a request for assistance.

According to Yao, autonomous AI systems and machines may one day look at us as belonging to one of three categories after observing our behavior peer, bystander or competitor.

While this may seem cold and aloof, these categories may dynamically change from one to another according to their evolving contexts.

At any rate, she said, this sort of cognitive categorisation is actually very human.

If you have an interesting article / experience / case study to share, please get in touch with us at [emailprotected]

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This AI-based system can teach human intention to robots - Express Computer