User Groups??

Hey gang :-)

Just wondering if anyone has ever tried attending or finding local "Security" user groups? I have found it helpful to attend user group meetings to help broaden my knowledge.

For instance when I was learning ColdFusion, I found that ateending the user group meetings once a month it was great experiance and a great place to meet people who want to share experiances.

Now, I am not looking for the "Elite Hackers of San Antonio User Group" meetings or anything, but more of a gathering of IT proffessionals that concentrate on Network Security, hardening, penetration testing and so on.

Been unable to my knowledge find anything like that locally. Wondering if anyone knows of any resources to find such a group. I do live in the San Antonio, TX area and the only ones I can find.....are the ones that meet at the food court in the local mall and BS for 30 minutes...lol

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have though of starting one, but my experiance isnt vast enough to justify starting a group.


Any ideas???


Thanks!!!

The International Systems Security Association might be what you're looking for. They have local groups that organize events and meetings on a monthly basis. It's probably the closest thing, anyways. Most security related stuff seems to be conferences and courses.

MsMittens comes through again!!

Thanks for the help, that was exactly what I was in search of.

Meet @ a mall and BS for about 30 min. Let me guess, it was near a bank of phones? 2600 are very rarely worth going to. The ones in my area (Gainesville, FL) are somewhat interesting. YOu never really learn anything appilicable (spelling?) but always somewhat interesting.



hjack

Yeap, thats what it looks like , and yes the ones i have found are 2600 related, thats why im in search of something better...LOL I am in my 30's and dont need to wast my time at the local mall with a bunch of 16 year olds who claim to be "hackers, crackers" and all they can do is get free phone time...LOL

The sites i found stated that they actually do meet at the mall, and talk "security" in the food court...that was the funniest thing ive ever seen. I bet after the meeting they go to EB games and drool over the new games.......this is totally not the scene im looking for.

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LOL I am in my 30's and dont need to wast my time at the local mall with a bunch of 16 year olds who claim to be "hackers, crackers" and all they can do is get free phone time...LOL

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Lol, that made me wondering, what is actually mostly the kind of people that show up at such meetings? I don't mean conferences like defcon etc. but the local meetings like 2600.