Early Days
Hackers N’ Hops is a cyber social group aimed at providing an intimidation free place to learn and explore information security. It was founded in 2018 (ish) and originally called “Hack the Box, Drink the Beer” an homage to the popular Dual core song mixed with the platform we frequented, Hack the Box.
Originally the group started with just 6 members getting together at each others houses, working though some HtB challenges and having a good time. Word began to spread and more and more people were interested until our homes and basements could no longer support the turnout.
We decided we could use our powers for good and moved the meeting spaces to local breweries and hosted the meets on off days every week. This worked out very well, the breweries were incredibly supportive and it gave us more and more exposure to grow. We decided that we would be an “everybody’s welcome” group and we started to become something more that just a few friends hacking boxes and drinking beer. It was around that time, the name was changed to Hackers N’ Hops.
Growing
Just as HnH was settling into a nice groove, the growth had slowed and the attendance was pretty steady COVID-19 came in and shut down everything. We didn’t want our meets to stop so we had to adapt as many others in the world so we migrated the following to a Discord channel and began doing our meets remotely.
Discord opened up some opportunities for the group to grow both in numbers and scope. We were no longer tied to once a week communication as before and we were able to sub-divide the group into interest areas such as hardware hacking, certification study/support groups.
Before long, we had a great group of members spanning several states and even in other countries. For a couple years we maintained a competitive CTF team and sponsored giveaways both publicly as well as internal to the group.
Membership
If you’re interested in joining the group reach out to me or any other verified human member of the group. Prove you’re not a robot and we’ll send you a discord link. We’re a fully inclusive group and have never had to ban anyone for misconduct. If you’re ok teaching what you know and learning from a great group of diverse people in a constructive and friendly way, we’d love to have you!
Anyone with an interest in information security, hacking, making or just technology in general is welcome to join. No technical skills required (but you’ll certainly have some after you join!)
Cheers!