Bill Gardner is an Assistant Professor at Marshall University, where he teaches information assurance and foundational technology courses in the Department of Forensics. Bill has spent the past four summers teaching making, cybersecurity, fundamental technology, and coding to K-12 students. He spent the past summer teaching Python to middle-high school students with a special emphasis on attaching girls and minorities to STEAM fields.
Bill is a past-president and information security chair at the Appalachian Institute of Digital Evidence. AIDE is a non-profit organization that provides research and training for digital evidence professionals including attorneys, judges, law enforcement officers and information security practitioners in the private sector. Prior to joining the faculty at Marshall, Bill co-founded the SecureWV/Hack3rCon convention and is a co-founded 304geeks, a West Virginia technology networking organization. Bill is an active member of the information security community and has spoken at a number of information security conferences including AIDE, Derbycon, Shmoocon, BSides-Cincy, BSidesCleveland, and BSidesAsheville.
In addition, Bill a co-author of “Building an Information Security Awareness Program: Defending Against Social Engineering and Technical Threats”, and “Google Hacking For Penetration Testers”.
More information about Bill Gardner can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/in/304blogs.
Dr. Josh Brunty is a Professor of Cyber Forensics & Cybersecurity with a joint appointment in the Department of Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Forensic Sciences and Department of Computer Sciences and Electrical Engineering. He also serves as the Research Lead for the Institute of Cyber Security. Prior to joining Marshall University in 2012, he served 7 years as a Digital Forensics Examiner, Technical Leader, and Technical Assessor for both the state and federal government sectors. He currently serves as Head Coach of the US Cyber Team for the US Cyber Games, leading the US national team in international cybersecurity competitions. Since 2013, he has served as Faculty Advisor and coach of Marshall University’s Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Team, which won the National Cyber League Championship in 2020. He serves on the editorial boards of Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation and the Journal of Forensic Sciences, and is a member of the NIST Organization of Scientific Area Committee (OSAC) on Digital Evidence. He is a Fellow of the Digital and Multimedia Sciences Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) and has received multiple awards for teaching and research excellence. His research has been funded by organizations including the United States Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security, and National Institute of Justice. He has published extensively on digital forensics, most notably co-authoring the textbook Social Media Investigation for Law Enforcement and award-winning research on forensic analysis of wearable devices.
John Sammons is an accomplished scholar, author, and educator with a wealth of experience in the field of digital forensics. As a Professor at Marshall University, he serves as the Associate Director of the Institute for Cyber Security and is a well-respected instructor in the areas of advanced digital forensics and firearms. In addition to his academic work, John is also a former Huntington Police officer and has received recognition for his investigative work from the United States Department of Justice.
John is the author, co-author, and contributor of several books on digital forensics, including the best-selling “The Basics of Digital Forensics,” which was nominated for Digital Forensics Book of the Year by Forensic 4 Cast in 2013. He has also co-authored the digital forensics chapter in Douglas Ubelaker’s “Forensic Science: Current Issues, Future Directions,” which is co-published with the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. In addition to his academic work, John also serves as a Fusion Center Liaison Officer for the West Virginia Intelligence Fusion Center and is the founder and President of the Appalachian Institute of Digital Evidence, a non-profit organization that provides research and training for digital evidence professionals.
John is highly regarded in his field, holding multiple certifications, including the AccessData Certified Examiner (ACE), the Cellebrite Certified Logical Operator (CCLO), and the Cellebrite Certified Physical Analyst (CCPA). He is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the High Technology Crime Investigation Association, and the FBI Infragard. Prior to joining the faculty at Marshall, John co-founded Second Creek Technologies, a digital forensics and electronic discovery firm located in Barboursville, West Virginia. He is an adjunct instructor at the Marshall University Forensic Science Center where he teaches advanced digital forensics and firearms to graduate students. John routinely provides training for the legal and law enforcement communities in the areas of digital forensics, investigations, and electronic discovery.
Robin Verma received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), New Delhi, India, in 2018. He was a postdoctoral researcher with the Cyber Center for Security and Analytics at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), San Antonio, Texas. His research interests include digital forensics, Internet of Things (IoT) security and forensics, the application of machine learning in digital forensics, cybersecurity, and privacy-preserving technologies.