Midnight in the War Room
Featured Defender in Semperis Studios' Midnight in the War Room: A Documentary on Cyber War, premiering at Black Hat USA, August 5, 2026. Recognition that reflects the work — not the reason for it.
About the film
Midnight in the War Room brings together more than 50 voices who rarely share a stage — global CISOs, reformed hackers, military strategists, cyber psychologists, journalists, and people who've lived through real attacks — to make the case that the window to get ahead of escalating cyber conflict is closing. It premieres at Black Hat USA on August 5, 2026, in Las Vegas.
Top-billed voices include Chris Inglis, Gen. (Ret.) David Petraeus, Jen Easterly, and Marcus Hutchins, alongside Prof. Mary Aiken, Chase Cunningham, John Hammond, Caitlin Sarian, Joe Tidy, and dozens more. Chaunda is featured for her work applying clinical emergency-response thinking to healthcare cybersecurity and connected medical device risk.
Her role in the film
WiCyS partnered with Semperis Studios as an Action Partner on the film — turning visibility into action for women in cybersecurity. Chaunda appears in the trailer speaking to the ER-to-healthcare-security throughline, and joined a WiCyS virtual panel on April 22, 2026 — "Behind the Scenes of Midnight in the War Room" — alongside Heather M. Costa (Mayo Clinic) and Krista Arndt (St. Luke's University Health Network).
Additional recognition
- WiCyS 2026 — virtual panelist, "Behind the Scenes of Midnight in the War Room."
- Halcyon podcast — Security Gets Serious and Last Month in Security, "Healthcare Security from the Frontlines."
- Women in Security & Privacy (WISP) — three-time DEF CON Lead Volunteer.
- DEF CON Biohacking Village — three-time volunteer, where medical devices and AI security meet.
Why it matters
The film is a spotlight, not the mission. The work underneath it is the same before and after the premiere: protecting patients, the connected devices they depend on, and the clinicians who treat them. If that's the kind of thinking your organization needs, that's the conversation worth having.