Gluten-Free Hackers Collective

2026-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

I was diagnosed with celiac disease in January of 2025. This came after two years of being so sick that I could barely get out of bed. I could barely think. I couldn’t come up with even the most basic of words. My heart raced constantly, and food always made me nauseous. And to top it all off, I was experiencing extremely high levels of anxiety that I just couldn’t control, even though I was never a particularly anxious person to begin with. Despite countless doctors’ appointments with different specialists, no one could figure out what was wrong with me.

Eventually, I went to a psychiatrist. Rather than diagnosing me with anxiety, they recognized that something physical might be happening beneath the surface and ordered a test I never would have thought to request. The results came back positive for celiac disease. It was a disease I had never particularly thought of until then. No one I knew had this disease, and I didn’t really know anything about it.

I started a gluten-free diet and spent hours researching what this actually meant. Celiac disease means avoiding more than obvious gluten-containing foods. Cross-contact matters too: shared cutting boards, toasters, utensils, and cooking surfaces can all create a risk. That makes gluten surprisingly difficult to avoid, and the consequences of getting it wrong are significant. Symptoms of ingesting gluten vary from person to person. For me, a single incident can leave me feeling sick for days, weeks, or even months.

How do you reduce the risk of accidentally ingesting gluten? For me, the safest option was to keep my home completely gluten-free and avoid restaurants or meals prepared by people who might not understand cross-contact. As you can imagine, this can be particularly isolating and difficult. How do you travel? How do you enjoy dinner with friends or a date night with a significant other?

The answer is community.

Community cannot remove every risk, but it can make those risks easier to navigate. People with celiac disease and other medically necessary gluten-free diets share restaurant recommendations, compare experiences, and help one another find places that take food safety seriously. But these restaurants are sometimes few and far between, and even when people are happy to accommodate you, it can be exhausting to feel like every meal revolves around your dietary needs. Sometimes it’s nice just to feel normal and be surrounded by people who understand.

So, some friends and I created the Gluten Free Hackers Collective. We have a presence at DEF CON and other cybersecurity conferences so that no one needs to feel alone in their struggles. We organize group meals at celiac-safe restaurants, offer snacks to those who need them, and keep electrolytes on hand for anyone dealing with the aftermath of accidental exposure. We want to make conferences, travel, and shared meals a little less stressful for people navigating celiac disease and other medically necessary gluten-free diets.

If this sounds like a community you’ve been looking for, visit our website to learn more.

The Origins of the Glass Firewall Conference

2026-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

I’ve been in STEM since I began my bachelor’s degree. I studied physics and then went on to study electrical and computer engineering. Both fields are known for being male-dominated, and that was definitely the case at my universities. I was one of a handful of women in classes of more than 100. I’ve had my fair share of men talking down to me, explaining concepts I already understood without being asked, and getting angry when I outperformed them.

My experience is not unique. Women all over the world encounter this kind of behavior every day. I’ve watched men say things like, “You’re not smart enough for this job” or “I just don’t think you can do it.” Those comments killed the curiosity those women had about the field. Every time I witnessed it, I stepped in and told those women that they absolutely could do it if they wanted to, and that the guy they were talking to had no idea what he was talking about. But this issue is wider than just my immediate coworkers.

I wanted to do something about this situation. I wanted other women to feel empowered to pursue careers in ethical hacking and offensive security. So I went to my boss and said, “What if we made our own conference for women who want to pursue this career path?” She was immediately in. I wrote a mission statement and a draft schedule, and then we pitched the idea to other women leaders in offensive security. They were immediately in, too.

So we got to work. A small team of women volunteers from multiple companies put together a conference to encourage women to pursue careers in offensive security. We called it Glass Firewall: Breaking Bytes and Barriers. Our first conference was held on October 20, 2023, at GitHub’s headquarters in San Francisco.

What Glass Firewall offers

Glass Firewall is a free, welcoming event for women who are curious about security research, ethical hacking, and cybersecurity. The conference is designed to make offensive security feel accessible, whether someone is taking their first steps into the field or looking for a refresher. We want attendees to leave with a better understanding of the field and a clearer idea of where they might fit within it.

Our inaugural event brought together about 60 participants, both in person and virtually. The day included an introduction to bug bounty programs, a hands-on Burp Suite session, talks about web vulnerabilities and reconnaissance, and a panel of women working in cybersecurity. We closed with a web application capture-the-flag challenge, giving attendees a chance to put what they learned into practice.

Since then, the conference has continued to feature workshops, panel discussions, and hands-on challenges. I have had the opportunity to lead a hands-on hardware workshop, and I love seeing attendees discover that they are capable of more than they initially thought. The goal is not to assume that everyone arrives as an expert. It is to give people the foundations, encouragement, and confidence to get started.

If you’re interested in learning more, please visit the Glass Firewall website.

PlutonianFern

Gluten-Free Hackers Collective

The Origins of the Glass Firewall Conference

What Glass Firewall offers