One of the best things that can happen at a show like Black Hat is making new friends, especially if they are not only brilliant, but also compliment you on your Linux T-shirt. That's how I met Terri Gilbert and Becky Bace, two of the most fascinating geek/security pros I've ever run across. I won't hazard a guess at their ages, but if you called them "granny hackers" they would probably not be offended.

Terri, a whiz kid from California, has been involved with computers for 50 years. Becky, who hails from Alabama, is a whiz kid in her own right. During her 16-year tenure at the NSA, she was the project manager for the first intrusion detection system, which was being developed there in the '80s.

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