Cybersecurity that makes sense to every audience.
Makayla Ferrell is a former software developer turned penetration tester, educator, and founder of QueryLock. She makes complex cybersecurity and technology topics clear, useful, and relevant for audiences ranging from developers and security teams to students, business leaders, and people with no technical background.
Makayla speaking at DEF CON 30
A perspective from both sides of software security.
Before testing applications for vulnerabilities, Makayla built software herself. That experience gives her a practical understanding of how developers think, the pressures engineering teams work under, and why security guidance can succeed or fail in the real world.
Her work in penetration testing showed her the other side: how attackers find weaknesses, how small decisions become security risks, and how often the same problems appear because the people building and using technology were never given the context to understand them.
Whether the room is full of developers, security professionals, students, executives, or people who have never written a line of code, Makayla meets the audience where they are and makes the technology understandable without talking down to them.
- DEVELOPER
- PENETRATION TESTER
- EDUCATOR
- FOUNDER
What I speak about
Cybersecurity does not have one audience. Makayla tailors the depth, examples, and language of each session to the people in the room, from deeply technical teams to audiences who simply want to understand the technology shaping their lives and work.
Making Cybersecurity Make Sense
Cybersecurity affects everyone, but it is often explained as if everyone already understands the technology behind it. Makayla breaks complex security concepts down without unnecessary jargon, helping audiences understand how technology works, where risk comes from, and why security decisions matter.
Good fit for
General audiences, students, universities, employee events, leadership groups, conferences, and community organizations.
Security Through a Developer's Lens
Before testing software for vulnerabilities, Makayla built it. Her talks explore the disconnect that can form between development and security teams, why secure-development guidance sometimes fails, how vulnerabilities are introduced, and how better education can help teams build more secure software.
Good fit for
Developers, engineering teams, AppSec teams, DevSecOps communities, technical leaders, and technology conferences.
Ethical Hacking & Penetration Testing
What does an ethical hacker actually do? Makayla brings real-world offensive-security experience into approachable talks about penetration testing, attack paths, vulnerabilities, hacker methodology, and what organizations can learn from seeing their systems through an attacker's eyes.
Good fit for
Technical teams, business leaders, students, aspiring cybersecurity professionals, and curious general audiences.
Cybersecurity Education & the Knowledge Gap
Security problems are often treated as technology problems when many begin as knowledge problems. Makayla explores how we teach cybersecurity, why important lessons fail to stick, and what changes when people actually understand the systems, vulnerabilities, and safeguards they interact with.
Good fit for
Conferences, educators, leadership audiences, security teams, developers, universities, and organizations focused on security culture.
Featured Talk
Most Security Problems Are Knowledge Problems
Organizations invest heavily in security tools, testing, policies, and training, yet many of the same problems continue to appear. Developers recreate familiar vulnerabilities. Employees work around safeguards they do not understand. Security teams repeat the same recommendations year after year.
This talk explores a simple idea: many security problems begin as knowledge problems. Drawing on experience as a software developer, penetration tester, and educator, Makayla examines what changes when we stop teaching people only what rule to follow and start helping them understand how the technology works, why the risk exists, and what their role is in preventing it.
Audiences leave with a more practical way to think about security education, communication, and the gap between knowing a rule and understanding enough to make better decisions.
Best For
Cybersecurity conferences, developer conferences, technology events, leadership audiences, universities, and company-wide learning events.
Available Formats
Conference session, keynote-style talk, webinar, or customized organizational session.
Selected speaking & instruction
Makayla has delivered technical talks, workshops, panels, recurring classes, and hands-on cybersecurity instruction for conference, corporate, university, and community audiences.
Penetration Testing Uncovered: A Guide to Tools and Techniques
Jefferson Wells / ManpowerGroup · Co-Presenter
Technical webinar covering penetration testing methodology, common attack paths, real-world tools and techniques, and risk-based findings.
Penetration Testing Workshop
Blacks in Cybersecurity, Black Women in Cyber · Workshop Instructor
Hands-on penetration testing instruction for participants in the Black Women in Cyber program.
Succeeding in Cybersecurity: Lessons from the Front Lines
Jefferson Wells / ManpowerGroup · Panelist
Industry panel on cybersecurity careers, professional challenges, the evolving threat landscape, and lessons from the field. September 23, 2025.
National Cyber League Coach
Prince George's Community College / WCyS Student Chapter · Coach & Technical Instructor
Led weekly CTF preparation sessions and created lesson plans covering OSINT, web application security, scanning, cryptography, password cracking, enumeration, network analysis, log analysis, and digital forensics.
Breaking into Tech: Strategies for Landing Your First IT Job
Prince George's Community College STEM Week · Panelist
Career panel for students exploring technology and cybersecurity careers.
Ethical Hacking Explained with Makayla
BlackGirlsHack · Lead Instructor
Led a recurring beginner-focused ethical hacking series with at least 20 scheduled sessions identified across 2023.
Network Penetration Testing Workshop
DEF CON 30, Girls Hack Village · Workshop Instructor
Co-led a hands-on network penetration testing workshop at DEF CON 30 in Las Vegas.
OSCP Study Group
BlackGirlsHack · Co-Instructor / Study Group Lead
Co-led a recurring weekly OSCP preparation group from June through August 2022.
Student Cloud Security Initiative
Cloud Security Alliance LA/SoCal · Co-Presenter
Participated in a student-focused cloud security education initiative.
Baby-Step Giant-Step Algorithm and Discrete Logs Applied to Public-Private Encryption
University of Mary Washington Research & Creativity Day · Oral Research Presenter
Presented cryptography research on discrete logarithms and public-private encryption.
Watch & read
Want to get a feel for Makayla's communication style before booking? Explore selected interviews and recorded discussions.
GUEST INTERVIEW | 2025
Breaking Into Cyber
A conversation about moving from software engineering into offensive security, penetration testing, AppSec, teaching, and mentorship.
FEATURED INTERVIEW | 2024
Hacker Asks
How Community and Curiosity Turned a Software Engineer into a Penetration Tester.
JEFFERSON WELLS / BRIGHTTALK | 2025
Succeeding in Cybersecurity: Lessons from the Front Lines
Recorded industry panel featuring Makayla discussing cybersecurity careers, challenges, and lessons from the field.
About Makayla
Makayla Ferrell is a cybersecurity professional, educator, and founder of QueryLock. She began her career as a software developer before moving into offensive security, giving her experience both building applications and testing them for vulnerabilities.
Her work spans penetration testing, technical instruction, cybersecurity coaching, university teaching, workshops, panels, and community education. She has taught everything from beginner ethical hacking concepts to hands-on competition preparation and professional penetration testing techniques.
Makayla believes cybersecurity becomes more effective when people understand the technology behind the rules. Whether she is speaking to developers, security professionals, students, business leaders, or people with no technical background, her goal is to make complex ideas understandable enough to change how people think and what they do next.
Bring a cybersecurity conversation your audience will actually understand.
Makayla is available for conferences, corporate events, developer communities, universities, cybersecurity organizations, podcasts, panels, workshops, and general-audience technology events. Sessions can be tailored to the audience's technical level, goals, and format.
Invite Makayla to SpeakHave a topic in mind that is not listed above? Reach out. Makayla can work with organizers to shape a session around the audience and event goals.
Organizer resources
When reaching out, it helps to include: