With information security topping the ‘key concern’ list for many businesses, the introduction of a new cyber security conference is giving local organisations an ideal opportunity to take charge of their data assets.
Hosted by Kordia’s Aura Information Security, 31c0n takes place in Auckland over two days in February 2017. The conference features the participation of some the world’s most respected security researchers and speakers; and is targeted at those who work or have an interest in cyber security.
Over the course of two days, attendees will hear from industry experts, mix with like-minded people and evolve their understanding of the cyber security landscape.
Aura Information Security general manager, Peter Bailey, points out the transversal relevance of information security today: “Regardless of what business you are in, information technology is depended upon for efficient operations every day. Along with that dependence is the risk of information breaches which can present a range of problems, from interruptions to business, to reputational damage and financial losses. That makes cyber security an issue for every business and every board of directors.”
Peter Gutmann, Computer Scientist at the University of Auckland, will deliver the keynote while other speakers confirmed to date for the inaugural 31c0n event include Bryan K. Fite (UK), Rodrigo Branco (Brazil) and Craig Smith (USA). More speakers will be announced in December and January.
Peter Gutmann has a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Auckland. His Ph.D. thesis and a book based on the thesis were about a cryptographic security architecture. He is interested in computer security issues, including security architecture, security usability (or more precisely the
lack thereof), and hardware security, he has discovered assorted flaws in publicly released cryptosystems and protocols.
From the United Kingdom, Bryan K. Fite is a security practitioner, entrepreneur and Chief Information Security Officer at BT who has spent over 25 years in mission-critical environments. “The challenges facing organisations today require a business reasonable approach to managing risk, trust and limited resources, while protecting what matters,” he says. Bryan’s speaking topic is ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles: The Internet of Deadly Things’.
From the USA, Craig Smith is Research Director of Transportation Security at Rapid7. He has developed open source utilities to teach CANbus to students, and security penetration tools to uncover vulnerabilities in vehicle and diagnostic systems. His presentation, provocatively titled ‘You Don’t Own It If You Can’t Hack It’ examines the role security has played in the automotive industry and how hacking has pushed this traditionally closed industry into being more open and able to take feedback. Craig is the author of ‘The Car Hacker’s Handbook: A Guide for the Penetration Tester’.
Originally from Brazil but now based in Oregon, USA, Rodrigo Branco (@bsdaemon) works as Principal Security Researcher at Intel Corporation in the Security Center of Excellence where he leads the Core Client, BIOS and IoT SoC Teams. He has previously held positions as Director of Vulnerability & Malware Research at Qualys and as Chief Security Research at Check Point where he founded the Vulnerability Discovery Team (VDT) and released dozens of vulnerabilities in many important software. Branco’s presentation, ‘Blinded Random Block Corruption Attacks’, examines the issue of privacy protection in virtualised cloud environments.
Bailey says the conference has as its core focus ‘Critical Infrastructure Security’, but through a diverse agenda and multiple sessions planned over the two days, will cover a broad range of cyber security challenges; he adds that a call for papers is out for interested contributors to participate.
“We’re expecting to have discussions across vehicle security, vulnerability and exploitation research, fuzzing, defensive techniques, offensive security, cryptography and cryptanalysis and more.
Information security is a fascinating and fast-moving environment in which there is always something new to learn – and 31c0n is an excellent opportunity to stay up to speed.”
Hosted at Auckland’s Viaduct Events Centre, the event has just 200 tickets available at $750 + GST for the two-day conference. For more information or to book visit: www.31c0n.co.nz and follow @31c0n for further updates.
