Tag Archives: events

Save The Date: Midwest ICS/SCADA Security Symposium 2013

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Just a quick announcement that the 3rd annual Midwest ICS/SCADA Security Symposium date has been announced. We will be holding the event on November 14th, 2013 in Columbus, Ohio.

It is a single track, single day event which is highly focused on peer to peer interaction between asset owners, utilities, manufacturers and other interested parties. The attendees usually span the various types of ICS asset holders from water, power, natural gas, chemical, automated manufacturing and other critical infrastructures. The focus is on real world threats, changing regulatory guidance, what controls work and work less, scenarios and tactics that have helped improve security and overall changes in protection strategies in the last 12 months.

The conversations are often candid, to the point and the open forum leads to passionate and real world discussions.

All attendees are vetted to ensure confidentiality and maintain focus on real content minus vendor sales pitches. The cost to attend is FREE and coffee, snacks and lunch is provided.

To learn more about the event or to qualify for an invitation, please drop us a line via email (info A T microsolved D O T com) or via aTwitter (@lbhuston or @microsolved). If you have attended or qualified in the past for the event, your invitation will be forthcoming shortly.

Speaker selection is now underway, so watch this blog for the agenda in the near future. 

Three Talks Not To Miss at DerbyCon

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Here are three talks not to miss this year at DerbyCon:

1. Bill Sempf (@sempf) presents a talk about pen-testing from a developer’s point of view. (PS – He has a stable talk too, catch it if you sell stuff in the Windows store) His work is great and he is a good presenter and teacher. Feel free to also ask him questions about lock picking in the hallways. He is a wealth of knowledge and usually friendly after a cup of coffee in the morning. Beware though, if he asks you to pick the lock to get to the pool on the roof… This talk is Saturday at 6pm. 

2. Definitely catch @razoreqx as he talks about how he is going to own your org in just a few days. If you haven’t seen his bald dome steaming while he drops the knowledge about the nasty stuff that malware can do now, you haven’t lived. I hear he also may give us a bit of secret sauce about what to expect from malware in the next 6 months. You might wanna avoid the first couple of rows of seating in this talk. He often asks for “voluntolds” from the audience and you might not look good in the Vanna White dress… His chrome dome presents on Friday at 7pm.

3. Don’t miss the Keynote by @hdmoore. His keynotes are always amazing and this time it appears he is going to teach you how to port scan the entire Internet, all at once and all in an easy to manage tool and timeframe. He probably will astound you with some of his results and the things he has seen in his research. It’s worth it! The Keynote is Friday at 9am. Yes, 9am in the morning. It rolls around twice a day now… I know… 🙂

Lastly, if you want to see me speak, you can find me on Friday at 1pm as I discuss and unveil the Stolen Data Impact Model (SDIM) project. Check it out! 

PS – There will be plenty of hallway talk and shenanigans at the con. Come out and sit down and chat. I can’t wait to talk to YOU and hear what you have to say about infosec, threats, the future or just what your thoughts are on life. Seriously… I love the hang out. So, drop down next to me and have a chat! See you this weekend!

 PSS – Yes, I might wear my “hippy hacker”/”packet hugger” shirt. Don’t scream “Packet Hugger” at me in the hallway, please, it hurts my feelings…. 

Hello from DayCon!

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I have spent some time this week at DayCon in Dayton, Ohio. This is a small hacker conference, with attendance by invitation only. This year the event was focused on attack sources, emerging trends and new insights into the cutting edge of dealing with cyber-crime across many vertical markets and countries.

I speak later today, and I am focusing on the history of cyber-crime, the crime stream, the criminal value chain and how information coalesces before an attack. I look forward to my talk, especially given how engaged the crowd has been thus far with the other speakers. The hallway conversations have been great! 

Lots of variety in the speakers here, with professors, researchers, hackers and even some ICS/SCADA folks in attendance. Lots of good insights floating around and even a few new product ideas!

I’d highly suggest you check out DayCon next year.

PS – Also, looking at the calendar, we are prepping for DerbyCon next week. Come out and see us there. I will be speaking on the Stolen Data Impact Model (SDIM) project and other topics. Plus, as usual, we will be haunting the halls and swinging from the rafters! 🙂 See you in Louisville! 

3 Reasons I Believe in #CMHSecLunch

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Around a year ago, (I know, it is hard to believe it has been a year), I started a quick and informal meet up group in Columbus, called #CMHSecLunch. The idea was simple:

  • Re-Create the “Hallway Con” effect on a monthly basis.

In this scenario, the Hallway Con is the best part of security events. It’s the one where you see old friends, make new ones and have great, warm and personal connections with them. I believe this is the core of why security events and conferences are so valuable. Beyond the skills training, marketing hype and presentations ~ the value of friendship, camaraderie and personal relationships remain.

Thus, I thought, what better way to encourage that part, than organizing events that focus on those goals. And thus, #CMHSecLunch was born. We have been meeting on the second Monday of each month at a rotating mall food court around the city. Response has been great! Sometimes there are a few of us (4 has been the smallest) and sometimes many of us (around 20 have been the largest meetings). But, people have gotten new jobs, found solutions to difficult security problems, met some new friends and saw people they missed.

Overall, it has been fun, entertaining and worthwhile.

We will be continuing the process into 2014 and here are at least three reasons I believe this approach and the #CMHSecLunch events are worth doing:

  1. I have gotten to see people connect, smile and re-unite for a quick bite of food, some laughs and great conversation. Since I am often referred to as the “Hippy Hacker”, you have to know that this alone makes me happy and makes me believe that the events are worthwhile. Whenever we connect with another and share with the community, good things happen! 
  2. New threats have been discussed that brought to light attacker motives, techniques and the width of their activity. If we don’t have lunch and discuss what we are seeing, then the bad guys win. They win even less, if we also have coffee and dessert afterwards. Nuff said! 🙂
  3. New projects have originated from the #CMHSecLunch discussions. In fact, several new projects. People have aligned, worked out some of their ideas and started working together to build talks, mathematical models, risk documents and various other useful tools. When a bunch of smart people eat and play together, often the outcome is stuff that helps all of us. So, being the origin of projects and stuff that helps the community is a fantastic thing. 

Why haven’t you attended (again)? 🙂

If I still haven’t persuaded you to check out the next #CMHSecLunch, (which you can find by clicking here), how about these quotes from people who have attended the event?

@TSGouge: Interaction with real live human beings, no screens involved! Food, jokes (that only another geek would get), getting my butt out of the office chair, and dialogue more rich than any conference or lecture…these are people who will now reach out and collaborate on problems or projects. To sum it all up: connections with people who get it.

@Cahnee: CMHSecLunch is a great way to get away from the craziness of work and spend time with infosec peers to talk about whats on everyones mind. We talk about current events and what each of us see as challenges facing us both professionally and personaly from an infosec perspectice.  Talk about encryption, mobile devices, NSA, DOD, etc.

@gisobiz: CMHSecLunch is a great thing! You meet with the like-minded people, or like-minded people wannabes and enjoy the food (great or not), but most importantly, the awesome conversation. You will get to know better people you already know, or make new friends.  Talking in an informal friendly environment takes the pressure off “being right” or “saying the right thing” which one encounters in a professional environment. Nobody will laugh at you or criticize you; in fact everyone is interested in your fresh (or stale) perspective on InfoSec or current events related to cyber security or anything else you care to share. And the really best thing is you get to learn from your colleagues, something you may not have an opportunity to learn otherwise.  It is like a miniature “geek” party in the best sense of the word. Or if you like – a mini-Black Hat conference. With food.

So, come on out next month and support the community. Have fun, grab a bite and engage with us, we are waiting for the view and insight that ONLY YOU can provide. Join us! 

CMHSecLunch is Monday August 9th

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This month’s CMHSecLunch is Monday, August 9th, 2013 at 11:30am. The location for this month is the Easton Mall food court. You can register here, or just show up. ADMISSION IS FREE!!!!!

Imagine hanging out with your infosec bestys, or meeting a new infosec connection that takes your career to the next level. Ever wondered what infosec experts eat, drink or why some of them only wear pastel shirts? This is YOUR chance to find out! 

We hope to see you there! 

Audio Blog Post: Derbycon 3.0 & Sexism at Cons

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Check out this audio blog post between Brent Huston and Victoria Loewengart as they discuss this year’s Derbycon. There is a special segment towards the end of the conversation where they discuss females attending Derbycon, what to expect and attempt to counter some of the bad news about sexism at conferences going around these days. 

Download the m4a here.

Save the Date for CMHSecLunch – May 13th

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It’s almost time for another CMHSecLunch! This month, the event is May 13th, 11:30a – 1pm at Easton Mall food court. As always, it is FREE and open to anyone interested in infosec and IT to attend. You can find out more, track the event and RSVP all one page by clicking here.

We hope to see you there! 

MicroSolved Announces International CyberThreat Intel Briefing

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MicroSolved, Inc. is proud to announce a unique event for those interested in information security.

The 2013 International Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing, featuring internationally recognized author William Hagestad, is an executive level briefing on the latest cyber threat intelligence from around the world. This briefing will provide a unique opportunity for C-Level decision makers to understand the cyber threat to their organizations through the loss of intellectual property via the determined use of cyber espionage. Attendees will be presented with two commercial case studies focusing on Global 50 companies. Recommendations, Short & Long Term Moves will accompany this interactive cyber threat intelligence briefing.

This is an opportunity for your management team to participate in a frank, focused discussion about the international cyber threats organizations face today in the global marketplace.

To learn more or sign up to participate, please register by clicking here.

CMHSecLunch for February

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This month’s CMHSecLunch is February 11th, at the Polaris Mall food court. It starts at 11:30 am Eastern and goes to 1pm Eastern. The Twitter chat runs at the same time if you can’t join in person – use the hashtag #CMHSecLunch to get in on the virtual event.

This is a great opportunity to meet with friends, peers and folks you may not have gotten to hang out with in a while. It is open to the public, there is no cost or registration hassles. You just go to the mall food court for lunch and sit down with friends to talk or maybe even make some new friends.

Turn outs have been great and the group of folks participating is growing. Each month, on the second Monday, we rotate between mall food courts around town so everyone gets a chance to be “close to home”. Seriously, it’s worth coming out. Think of this as the best part of security conferences (the chance to hang out and chat in the hallways), without the con flu or need to travel on an airplane.

Hopefully, the Twitter hashtag will grow as well and we can use it for folks that are/were in our community, but can’t get to the physical event for whatever reason. 

As always, thanks for reading StateOfSecurity and engaging with MicroSolved. We love the CMH infosec community and organizing this event is just another way we hope to give back for all you have done for us over the last two decades! Thanks!!!