I didn’t make it to information security conference AusCERT 2013 this year. I’m about to read what’s been written and compile a list — but first, a reflection on what happened in 2012.
When I look back two years to what I wrote from AusCERT 2011, I’m reminded that we were just getting our head around the implications of the Stuxnet worm. Not only was malware being written by organised criminals, and we were facing an explosion of anti-banking malware and mobile malware, and looking ahead to when an angry child might deploy malware against their neighbours — we were now made well aware that malware was also being written by nation states with budgets in the millions of dollars and beyond.
But looking through the list (below) for AusCERT 2012, what jumps out is the emphasis on the militarisation of information security, as well as the emphasis in the scale of criminal activities. I won’t expand on that, because the conversation with AusCERT general manager Graham Ingram speaks for itself.
Articles from AusCERT 2012
- AusCERT 2012: DNS poisoning the ‘thin end of a wedge’, ZDNet Australia, 17 May 2012.
- AusCERT 2012: Russian crims evade transaction profiling, ZDNet Australia, 17 May 2012.
- AusCERT 2012: NSA, FBI split on comms intercepts, ZDNet Australia, 21 May 2012.
- The dawn of the cyber posse, ZDNet Australia, 28 May 2012.
Podcasts from AusCERT 2012
- Patch Monday episode 139, “War talk dominates AusCERT 2012”, the first of two episodes based on material recorded at the information security conference. The overall theme is that infosec is becoming militarised. We no longer talk about “information assurance” but “defensive cyber operations”. Click through for the full list of speakers.
- Patch Monday episode 140, “Cybercrime: it’s just too easy”, the second of two episodes based on material recorded at the AusCERT 2012 information security conference. AusCERT general manager Graham Ingram explains why cybercrime is here to stay, and F-Secure chief research officer Mikko Hypponen details a complex transnational criminal operation that saw goods bought fraudulently in Denmark being resold in Moscow, as well giving his views on hacktivism and the level to which antivirus companies should cooperate with governments.
Bonus Extra Video
After the conference, my flight back to Sydney was delayed. With the need to kill some time, this video was the result.
- 5 Conference Tips for PR Professionals, an impromptu video message from Gold Coast airport.
My compilation of reports from AusCERT 2013 will be posted later today. My compilation of reports from AusCERT 2013 is now online.