Wild West Hackin' Fest Deadwood 2026 brings together beginners and seasoned practitioners for a few days of hands-on labs, technical talks, and workshops in the Black Hills. It's built to be approachable, community-driven, and genuinely useful for anyone looking to sharpen their skills in a low-barrier setting.

Bishop Fox's Alethe Denis, Senior Security Consultant, is bringing her physical social engineering expertise to Deadwood with a hands-on workshop on the reconnaissance and planning work that happens before a physical red team engagement ever sets foot on site.

For more details, visit: WWHF Deadwood 2026

Before the Door: Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Physical Red Team Planning

Speaker: Alethe Denis, Senior Security Consultant, Bishop Fox

Abstract: Most physical security assessments are won or lost before anyone touches a door. The pretext, timing, dress, entry path, and level of aggression all depend on how well the team understands what normal looks like at the target site.

This two-hour hands-on workshop focuses on the reconnaissance and surveillance phase of authorized physical red team operations. Attendees will use OSINT, passive observation notes, bounded active reconnaissance scenarios, and fictional target packets to assess facility routines, vendor assumptions, and visible security controls.

Rather than treating surveillance as "sneaky fieldcraft," this session frames it as professional assessment preparation: identifying who belongs, what proof of belonging is expected, where controls are strongest or weakest, and how new observations should change the plan.

Participants will work through realistic exercises involving site research, observation interpretation, environmental fit, pretext selection, scope boundaries, and abort criteria. The workshop is designed to be practical for in-person and remote attendees without requiring live field surveillance.

This session is intended for red teamers, social engineers, physical security testers, and defenders who want to better understand how reconnaissance shapes safe, ethical, and useful physical security testing.