I know some cities might have more of a "hacker community" than other, but how do you find it? I know there have to be security professionals in the area, but I don't even know to start looking for them, other than Google search (and that is getting me zero results).

So, how do you advertise that you're looking for people in the community with to meet, get ideas, collaborate on projects, etc.? I got my CEH a few years ago, but I have been out the community, and my job doesn't focus on security. I'd like to meet with local people and really get more into the security field.

Thanks!

Perfect, there are both where I live.
I guess you just have to know the right words to search for?

I knew there was a SQL Server Users Group here, but I didn't think to look for LUG. Is there one specifically for information security?

Infragard looks like it's pretty active, and probably has a lot of members, so I'm definitely going to check that out.

I'll also try to attend the Linux Users Group, but one of my friends told me that it's a pretty small group, and some sponsors have pretty much taken it over and turned it into a place to promote themselves.

This is all really good stuff!

By the way, the purpose of this is that I haven't been active in the security/hacker community at all for about a year or two, including posts on these forums (my last post before yesterday was August of last year!). I also like to work with electronics and microcontrollers, which is why I wanted to find more of a local community, maybe even a hackerspace or something similar.

I originally got interested in IT/programming/security because of a group of friends back where I grew up. They helped me learn some programming, some hardware, introduced me to Linux (outside of the GUI), lots of game-console modding, and basically gave me my whole start in the technology industry. That being said, it's been hard to find something like that where I live now, and I think I'll be able to find that in the local hacker community. It's even more likely to find that within the LUG or DC group, I think. Infragard seems way more professional, which I also like, so I'm going to try to attend all of them.

Thanks everyone!

Infragard, ISSA, ISACA, OWASP, DC<area code>, <subject> users' group.

You can also look into Information Systems Security Association (ISSA).
{issa.org}

It is more of a "Professional" org (read CISSP).