Blue Team Con 2026

Name: The Demon Dog of Defense in Depth
Start: 2026-09-12T11:30:00-0500
End: 2026-09-12T11:55:00-0500

Saturday September 12, 2026 11:30am - 11:55am CDT

Imagine, if you will, a castle. It represents our organization—one we, as a knighthood of security leaders analysts & engineers, are sworn to protect. The defenses in our security program are built carefully and with deliberation. Identity, network segmentation, secrets management, “you-shall-not-pass” gates, incident response plans—all interwoven so the walls do not crumble easily, despite inevitable gaps and weaknesses. This is the strategy we call “Defense in Depth."

And yet, in this derring-do bad and good-luck tale, an unsettling force slips through every layer. Castles have fallen from grace because of it—a metaphorical “demon dog” that lurks on-premises, not by breaking controls, but by passing through them like a specter. The same blasted presence, again and again—unchallenged, unquestioned…and yet permitted! How? Is it some insidious vulnerability that evades the sharpest of the sharpies? This may be a story—but a “demon dog” likely walks through your real-world systems and processes even now. One that not even AI can simply wish away.

This talk looks beyond the buzzwords and explores the many meanings of “Defense in Depth.” We’ll examine popular controls and security models within a zero trust framework that aim to work together to reduce attack surface through layered defense. And yes, even the response plans to catch what slips through will be discussed.

We’ll then explore the gaps within each control, using deductive reasoning to uncover the universal constant capable of bringing it all crashing down in a fiery blaze—told through a mystery unfolding in Duckburg (ooo-WOO-OO!).

Speakers

Aria Langer

Senior Security Engineer, Morningstar

Aria Langer is a Security Engineer at Morningstar where she leads the governance of privilege access management, as well as taking the chaos in operational tasks and turning them into order.
In her personal life, Langer will talk your ear off about long-distance running, sewing, music-gaming, and RPGs from the good ol’ days... Read More →

Saturday September 12, 2026 11:30am - 11:55am CDT
Swissôtel Chicago 323 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601, USA

Talk Track 2

Company Morningstar
Audience Intermediate
Subject Security Operations / Tools

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Blue Team Con 2026

Aria Langer

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