Peter Gutmann is a researcher in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Auckland working on design and analysis of cryptographic security architectures and security usability. Having been part of the team that wrote the popular PGP encryption package, you'd expect that he'd put a lot of trust crypto.
Anthony Caruana | 30 May | Read more
Kayne Naughton, is a technologist and security researcher with Asymmetric Security. During AusCERT 2014 he took a look into the murky world of Bitcoin and examined the good, bad and ugly of this new currency.
Anthony Caruana | 30 May | Read more
At AusCert 2014, Verizon's Marcus Sachs posed the question – "Are we gambling with TCP/IP?" Think about it. In the late 1990s there was a protocol war in progress but in a few short years Token Ring, NetBEUI, Apple Talk and the others all disappeared to be replaced by the protocol of the Internet.
Anthony Caruana | 30 May | Read more
Stefan Schumacher is head of the Magdeburg Institute for Security Research and is currently running a research programme about the psychology of security. At AusCERT 2014, he told the audience that Edward Snowden's NSA leaks have removed any lingering doubts about a totalitarian surveillance of the Internet.
Anthony Caruana | 29 May | Read more
Imagine taking one of the most important business processes within your business, making a revolutionary change to it and having to convince everyone that the process they’ve relied on isn’t nearly as perfect as they thought. That’s a challenge that was faced by Ian Brightwell, the CIO of NSW Electoral Commission.
Anthony Caruana | 22 May | Read more
One of the great challenges of incident response is knowing what the best course of action will be before you start reacting in anger during a security incident. Who should you notify and when? At what point should things be escalated to a more senior level in the business? Should you shut down systems or delete virtual machines?
Anthony Caruana | 22 May | Read more
Information and system security is a complicated business that comes down to a few very basic concepts. Issues of trust and identity are central to effective information and system security. The trouble is, we often struggle to understand what these two things mean and have an even harder time trying to prove them.
Anthony Caruana | 22 May | Read more
Nine debaters, six topics and a witty moderator keeping everyone in check – that’s how it works at AusCERT’s annual speed debate. Three of the nine speakers get to speak in the affirmative for each topic with another three arguing for the negative. Why is it speed debating? Each speaker only had 60 seconds to make their point.
Anthony Caruana | 22 May | Read more
AusCERT's answer to the Academy Awards was recently held in front of a packed room at the Royal Pines Resort at the Gold Coast. The event was hosted by popular radio and television personality Adam Spencer. The four awards recognised the achievements of individuals and organisations that made outstanding contributions to the Australian information security sector.
Anthony Caruana | 22 May | Read more
The three laws of thermodynamics – “you can’t win, you can’t even break even, and you can’t even get out of the game” – can be applied to hackers who only have to succeed once and get access to one piece of data for you to have lost, said consultant Dan Klein at AusCERT 2014 event.
Anthony Caruana | 22 May | Read more
Scott McIntyre spent over a decade as the chief security officer for the oldest ISP and telco in the Netherlands. Now, he’s the chief security specialist for Telstra. His career has spanned Internet/IT security for nearly 30 years. He believes the Internet can be re-claimed by those who want to do good, and shouldn't fall prey to the creepy behaviour our headlines are being filled with.
Anthony Caruana | 22 May | Read more
As many security professionals know, timing is everything when it comes to detecting and responding to security threats. This is what Rich Costanzo from FireEye said during his presentation at the AusCERT 2014 event, and gave examples that show how crucial timing is.
Anthony Caruana | 15 May | Read more
Graham Ingram opened this year's AusCERT conference, the thirteenth, saying that the most obvious theme is that of you lose trust in security. "Where are you? What's left?" he pondered.
Anthony Caruana | 15 May | Read more
One of the neat, often forgotten, features that was introduced with Windows 8 was Windows to Go. Windows to Go is a fully self-contained Windows installation that can be run straight from a USB stick. The benefit is that a worker can take their personal settings and preferences with them on a USB stick, plug it into a computer, boot from the USB device and be able to work from any computer.
Anthony Caruana | 07 May | Read more
Over the last month I've attended four international events that have had a focus on security. And there's one data point that ought to have every CSO, CISO and CIO out there worried. Despite more money than ever being spent on security – and the amount is increasing – the amount of money being lost as a result of security breaches is rising at an even greater rate.
Anthony Caruana | 17 Apr | Read more