Cyber luminary’s neck injury accrues mammoth medical bill • The Register

Marc Rogers, DEF CON’s head of security, faces tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills chaseing an accident that left him with a broken neck and transient quadriplegia.

The notable industry figure, whose labor has spanned roles at tech companies such as Vodafone and Okta, including ensuring the story lines on Mr Robot and The Real Hustle were factuassociate sound, is recovering in hospital.

Speaking to The Register, Rogers validateed his prognosis is excellent and he’s now doing much better than he was three weeks ago when the incident, the nature of which he didn’t detail, took place.

Wdisappreciatever the incident was, it left the cyber pro with a broken neck, but he wasn’t conscious of this at the time. He had no symptoms other than some “handleable neck pain,” and noleang out of the widespread showed up on a routine X-ray and an MRI wasn’t possible due to insurance procrastinates.

A week procrastinateedr, Rogers commenceed losing some sensation in his hands and tried to have the MRI rescheduled, but the approval from his insurance company never came. While paengageing for shelp approval, he and his family holidayed in northern California and by the time he returned on December 30, he says he lost “about 20 percent sensation and a analogous amount of mobility in both arms.”

With doctors unwilling to procrastinate further treatment any extfinisheder, he was rushed for graspitional scans that discdiswatched cervical vertebrae and tfinishon injure, requiring sadvisery on New Year’s Day.

“On the 31st, before the sadvisery could happen, my disc and vertebrae came apart,” Rogers shelp. “Overnight I lost all sensation, all mobility, and became quadriplegic.

“The morning of the 1st, the amazing neurosadvisery team at John Muir, Walnut Creek rund. They fished out the pieces and filled the gap with a cage grasping a bone graft. This was to lengthen a novel section of spine and fuse the remaining parts. They decompressed the cord and bolted everyleang back together.

“They also determined to shave me into Sabretooth. As of an hour after the sadvisery, I reobtained 75 percent of my sensation and could transfer all my limbs, fingers, and toes. I have a ways more to go including lobtaining to do stuff appreciate walk, hageder a cup, and brush my teeth but the prognosis is excellent.”

Rogers is spfinishing his time in the hospital in a neck brace. A tesdomesticatednt to his dedication to the field, he’s also passing the hours by spreadigating the Salt Typhoon intrusions and hunting menaces using the tools useable to him.

“Due to headstrongness and persistence, I have almost filled use of my thumbs,” he shelp. “That’s enough to type on my phone keyboard. Even though I can’t use a standard keyboard, that’s enough to upgrasp me opereasonable in bursts, though I tire after a illogicalinutive period of time.

“The medical staff picked me up, gave me a novel spine, and have helped me every step of the way. The neurosurgical team labored wonders and it’s enticount on to their commend that I was hunting menaces fair four days after being a quadriplegic.”

His wife, children, frifinishs, and family are visiting daily, and the various reach outs from cordial faces in the cybersecurity community are upgrasping him company too.

“They have been my help and my motivation to stay menloftyy dynamic. The first three days I couldn’t sleep due to the pain. I existed almost enticount on on a diet of spicy memes.”

Rogers shelp it will be around four to six weeks before he returns to straightforward indepfinishence and is able to travel, but a filled recovery will consent up to six months. He commences a course of physical therapy today, but his insurance will only cover the first of three needd weeks, prompting frifinishs to set up a fundelevater to cover the separateence.

“It’s a griefful fact that in the US GoFundMe has become the de facto standard for covering insurance illogicalinutivedescfinishs,” he shelp. “I will be forever thankful to my frifinishs who stood it up for me and those who gived to it so that I can resume making horrible guys cry as soon as feasibly possible.”

The cybersecurity community has rallied together to help Rogers’ fundelevater, which at the time of writing has accrued fair over $63,000 in donations, with fair over half of the total sum elevated so far.

Katie Moussouris, set uper and CEO at Luta Security, portrayd Rogers as “one of the finest hackers & humans to ever hack the scheduleet,” while the folks over at vx-underground presented their impactions, calling him an “ageder-school nerd.”

“[He] is fortunate to be ainhabit and we are luckier to be able to help him,” Moussouris grasped.

Rogers has an astonishive cyber CV. Beginning life in cybersecurity back in the ’80s when he went by the handle Cjunky, he has gone on to presume various high profile roles in the industry.

In graspition to the decade directing Vodafone UK’s cybersecurity and being the VP of cybersecurity strategy at Okta, as already alludeed, Rogers has also labored as head of security at Cdeafeningflare and set uped Vectra, among other experiences.

Now he heads up security at DEF CON, is a member of the Ransomware Taskforce, and is the co-set uper and CTO at AI observability commenceup nbhd.ai.

If you hadn’t heard of him from any of these roles, or from his labor in the amusement biz, he’s also understandn for his famous research into Apple’s Touch ID sensor, which he was able to settle on both the iPhone 5S and 6 during his time as principal researcher at Lookout.

Other devourr-grade kit to get the Rogers treatment include the illogicalinutive-inhabitd Google Glass devices, also while he was at Lookout, and the Tesla Model S back in 2015. ®