Below is a list of the most established and ones I found attractive.

The largest information security conference on the East Coast is also the only security conference expressly assembling experts to [...]]]> It is my intention next year to attend at least a couple of security conferences if not more.

Below is a list of the most established and ones I found attractive.

CSI

The largest information security conference on the East Coast is also the only security conference expressly assembling experts to challenge the status quo.

CSI thinks that we should forget about tweaking the status quo. We’re already well into a post-perimeter world but without a consensus on the strategic plan moving forward. It’s time to grapple with the issues and technologies that can radically alter the way security works-now, and in the months and years ahead.

Site Link

Defcon

It’s the largest underground hacker convention in the world!

When: July 31 – August 2, 2009
Where: Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Cost: $100 (USD) NB. It’s cash only. (free if you’re a full badge Black Hat attendee)

Site Link

Black Hat

The Black Hat Briefings are a series of highly technical information security conferences that bring together thought leaders from all facets of the infosec world – from the corporate and government sectors to academic and even underground researchers. The environment is strictly vendor-neutral and focused on the sharing of practical insights and timely, actionable knowledge. Black Hat remains the best and biggest event of its kind, unique in its ability to define tomorrow’s information security landscape.

When: Various
Where: Las Vegas, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Washington DC
Cost: Varies

Site Link

SecTor

SecTor brings the world’s brightest (and darkest) minds together to identify, discuss, dissect and debate the latest digital threats facing corporations today. Unique to central Canada, SecTor provides an unmatched opportunity for IT Professionals to collaborate with their peers and learn from their mentors. Held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in downtown Toronto, SecTor runs two full days. The event features Keynotes from North America’s most respected and trusted experts. Speakers are true security professionals with depth of understanding on topics that matter. SecTor is a must attend event for every IT Professional.

When: October 5-7, 2009
Where: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Cost: Early Bird: $499, Standard: $749, Full: $999 (CDN)

Site Link

ShmooCon

ShmooCon is an annual East coast hacker convention hell-bent on offering three days of an interesting atmosphere for demonstrating technology exploitation, inventive software & hardware solutions, and open discussions of critical infosec issues. The first day is a single track of speed talks, One Track Mind. The next two days, there are three tracks: Break It!, Build It!, and Bring It On!.

When: February 6-8, 2009
Where: Wardman Park Marriott, Washington DC, USA
Cost: From $100-$300

Site Link

Chaos Communication Congress

The Chaos Communication Congress is an international, five-day open-air event for hackers and associated life-forms. The Camp features two conference tracks with interesting lectures, a workshop-track and over 30 villages providing workshops and gettogethers covering a specific topic.

When: December 27th to 30th, 2008
Where: bcc Berliner Congress Center, Berlin, Germany
Cost: 130 € – 1500 €

Site Link

Toorcon

ToorCon is San Diego’s hacker conference bringing together the top security experts to present their new tricks of the trade and have fun in the sunny and beautiful city of San Diego.

When: September 2009
Where: San Diego, California, USA
Cost: From $120-$200

Site Link

HITB Security Conference

The main aim of our conferences is to enable the dissemination, discussion and sharing of network security information. Presented by respected members of both the mainstream network security arena as well as the underground or black hat community, this years conference promises to deliver a look at several new attack methods that have not been seen or discussed in public before.

When: Various
Where: Dubai, Malaysia
Cost: Varies

Site Link

Phreaknic

PhreakNIC is an annual gathering in Nashville, TN, for hackers, makers, security professionals, and general technology enthusiasts. Hours upon hours of both informative and entertaining presentations are given by volunteers and many areas are set up with the intent of encouraging socialization.

When: October 2009
Where: Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Cost: $25

Site Link

SANS

SANS provides intensive, immersion training designed to help you and your staff master the practical steps necessary for defending systems and networks against the most dangerous threats – the ones being actively exploited. The courses are full of important and immediately useful techniques that you can put to work as soon as you return to your offices. They were developed through a consensus process involving hundreds of administrators, security managers, and information security professionals, and address both security fundamentals and awareness, and the in-depth technical aspects of the most crucial areas of IT security.

When: Various
Where: Various
Cost: Varies

Site Link

Techno Security Conference

TheTrainingCo. is both new and old. As a corporation, it is the culmination of a dream that we have been sharing with people for the past decade. In that sense, it is new. We officially opened our doors in early 1999.
We are old in that the experiences of our senior staff are almost unmatched in their knowledge of the subjects being addressed at our conferences and speaking engagements. Every bit of that hard earned knowledge came as a result of years of highly specialized work and contact with thousands of people. Our two senior members alone bring more than one half of a century of pioneering efforts in the fields of Techno-Security and Cyber-Crime Prevention.

When: May 31 – June 3, 2009
Where: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA
Cost: $895

Site Link

CEIC Conference

CEIC offers lectures and hands-on labs delivered by industry-leading experts, which gives attendees the opportunity to learn the latest techniques and methodologies in computer forensics, eDiscovery, incident response and enterprise investigations.

When: May 17-20, 2009
Where: Loews Royal Pacific Resort, Universal Orlando, USA
Cost: $895

Site Link

IntrusionWorld Conference

The IntrusionWorld Conference & Expo is the forum for business and corporate executives, Industry, government, legal and academic experts that aim to present the state-of-the-art of the practice, emerging technologies in intrusion prevention. Peer-to-peer groups will help us understand the trends and confront the challenges inherent in today’s intrusion prevention technologies, products, systems implementation and risk management. Field practitioners will exchange best practices and lessons learned. Participants will share ideas and expand business and professional contacts during lunch roundtables, workshops, receptions and other activities.

When: May , 2009
Where: Baltimore, MD, USA
Cost: $875

Site Link

The Last Hope

We all knew these days would come. The Last HOPE is the seventh Hackers On Planet Earth conference.

When: July, 2009
Where: Hotel PennSylvania, New York, USA
Cost: $

Site Link

RSA Security Conference

In information security, you’re trained to expect the unexpected. Changes occur in a nanosecond. Stay on top by staying one step ahead — attend RSA® Conference 2008!
Join us for the most comprehensive forum in information security. Come learn about the latest trends and technologies, get access to new best practices, and gain insight into the practical and pragmatic perspectives on the most business critical issues facing you today.
Connect and collaborate. Build your professional network. And mingle with 17,000 of the industry’s best and brightest.

When: April 20-24, 2009
Where: Moscone Center, San Francisco, California, USA
Cost: From $1495 – $3295

Site Link

Info Security Canada

When it comes to your critical information – it’s not a question of if it’s at risk, it’s a question of when. Stay in front of the fast, ever changing information security curve, at Infosecurity Canada 2008, your first and best line of defense.

When: June, 2009
Where: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Cost: TBD

Site Link

Open source has always been an option, although generally for the technically inclined but several years ago the big guys (Google and Microsoft), brought hosted [...]]]> Higher Education and K-12 institutions have always either lead in the IT field with innovative solutions or been way behind in technology to the point of not having any.

Open source has always been an option, although generally for the technically inclined but several years ago the big guys (Google and Microsoft), brought hosted E-mail offerings to the table that would out perform any locally installed solution and without a price tag associated with it.

A new player recently entered the market with their very attractive offering. ZCS from Zimbra.

Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) is a groupware product created by Zimbra Inc., located in San Mateo, California, USA. The company was purchased by Yahoo! in September 2007.[1]. The software consists of both client and server components. Two versions of Zimbra are available: an open-source version, and a commercially supported version (“Zimbra Network”) with closed-source components. These software versions are available from Zimbra for download and independent use, from Zimbra-authorized partners, and included with service from a Zimbra-authorized hosting provider.

So what are the options?

1. Outsource
   1. Google Apps for Education
   2. Microsoft’s Live@edu Service
   3. Zimbra’s Hosted Collaboration Suite
2. Maintain/deploy in-house

Even thought there are legitimate issues with outsourcing, like privacy of e-mails, loosing control over the capability to access logs in case of an incident and ads displayed to the constituents amongst others; the option to provide this same level of service in-house is not economically feasible.

Lets take a look what these services offer:

Microsoft and Google are free provided that they can display ads for alumni and Zimbra costs $2 per year per student.

Resources:

Microsoft Live@edu:

Microsoft Live@edu video
Live@edu with Exchange Labs
Web Collaboration

Google Apps for Education:

Google Apps video

Zimbra:

Compare Hosted EDU Products

Educause is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. Membership is open to institutions of higher education, corporations serving the higher education information technology market, and [...]]]> This years Educause conference took place in Orlando, Florida.

Educause is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. Membership is open to institutions of higher education, corporations serving the higher education information technology market, and other related associations and organizations.

The association provides a social networking Connect site that supports blogs, wikis, podcasts and other platforms for IT professionals to generate and find content and to engage their peers; professional development opportunities; print and electronic publications, including e-books, monographs, and the magazines Educause Quarterly (EQ) and Educause Review[1]; strategic policy advocacy; teaching and learning initiatives; applied research; special interest discussion groups; awards for leadership and transformative uses of information technology; and a Resource Center for IT professionals in higher education.

Major initiatives of Educause include the Core Data Service, the Educause Center for Applied Research (ECAR), the Educause Learning Initiative (ELI), Net@EDU (advanced networking), the Educause Policy Program, and the Educause/Internet2 Computer and Network Security Task Force. In addition, Educause manages the .edu Internet domain under a contract with the U.S. Department of Commerce.^[1]

The current membership of Educause comprises more than 2,000 colleges, universities, and educational organizations, including 200 corporations, with 16,500 active members.

Below are pictures from the conference:

My schedule at the conference:

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

• Full Day Seminar – Cloud Computing Made Simple and Affordable: Using the Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) to Provide an Effective, Powerful, and Economical Rich Services Environment

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

• Discussion Session : Cloud Computing
• Emerging Technologies : Crafting a Campus Identity: First-Year Students, Residential Life, and Social Networking
• Discussion Session : Business Continuity Management
• Leadership and Management : Top-Ten “Gotchas” for the New CIO
• Networking and Infrastructure : High Availability and Server Consolidation with Virtualization
• Discussion Session : Policy and Law

Thursday, October 30, 2008

• Leadership and Management : IT Matters, but Information Resources Matter More
• Emerging Technologies : Developing Low-Cost Applications Using Offshore Companies
• Discussion Session : Network Management
• Enterprise Systems : CRM Adventures: Three Perspectives
• Networking and Infrastructure : Structuring Authentication Across the Campus Community
• Lightning Round Session : Security and Privacy Lightning Round
• Teaching and Learning : Are You Ready? A Systematic Approach to Training New Help Desk Staff
• Enterprise Systems : SOA Built on Open Source Web Service Technologies
• Networking and Infrastructure : Deployment of a Virtualized Server Grid
• Security and Privacy : Network Admission Control: A Survey of Approaches

Friday, October 31, 2008

• Enterprise Systems : IT Disaster Recovery Within the Framework of Business Continuity Planning
• Leadership and Management : Deploying an Open Source, Online Evaluation System: Multiple Experiences

Overall I thought it was an excellent conference, there weren’t as many people this year as previous ones.

The exhibit hall was fun as always. Some exhibits were great and others sucked which brings up another subject. Marketing.

There were two exhibits that stood out amongst the crowd. The first one from Bradford Networks and the other from Trapeze Networks. These guys not only gathered leads, but engaged their prospective customers allowing them to deliver their sales pitch. Two companies that I will definitely be following up with.

Other companies that did well on their marketing pitch were Turning Technologies, Novell, CDW, Zimbra, Elluminate, and Microsoft. Although the only thing Microsoft had going for itself was as great demo on a smart-board of Image Composite Editor.

Microsoft Image Composite Editor is an advanced panoramic image stitcher. The application takes a set of overlapping photographs of a scene shot from a single camera location and creates a high-resolution panorama incorporating all the source images at full resolution. The stitched panorama can be saved in a wide variety of formats, from common formats like JPEG and TIFF to multi-resolution tiled formats like HD View and Silverlight Deep Zoom.

The things that characterized the good exhibits can be summarized in a few words. They were accessible, had an inviting environment, gave away free stuff (like free iTouch and laptops every hour) and had either professionals or very seasoned sales people giving the presentations.

On the other side of the coin, were the very big and expensive exhibits which just didn’t deliver.

Some that deserve mention are AT&T which has a very expensive three environment exhibit representing campus life and U-Verse all over the place. Alcatel-Lucent had a not very inviting exhibit and their staff sat down most of the time. Citrix was just offering a $5 Starbucks card for filling out a survey. Cognos had a closed exhibit that wasn’t inviting to anyone.

Its not that these companies were cheap, which they were; but they are spending a lot of money for lead generation when they could also be qualifying the leads and delivering their product demos to a captive audience.

Over the last several years multiple institutions have posted online their courses with lecture notes, exams, and videos for free.

Not having financial resources to attend college is not a reason to not excel. With the advent of the [...]]]> Unlocking Knowledge, Empowering Minds is the recent motto on MIT’s OCW website.

Over the last several years multiple institutions have posted online their courses with lecture notes, exams, and videos for free.

Not having financial resources to attend college is not a reason to not excel. With the advent of the Internet, the knowledge is just a click away,  giving everyone the opportunity to attend renowned higher education institutions virtually.

Here is a classic example of great work by Prof. Shiv Kalyanaraman from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) on Computer Networking.

Topics range from basic Communication Networks to Internet Protocols to Broadband and Optical Networks as well as Wireless and experimental networking.

A partial list of institutions who share their knowledge and are members of the Open Courseware Consortium.

• Notre Dame OpenCourseWare
• MIT OpenCourseWare
• Tufts University OCW
• Utah State University OpenCourseWare
• The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s OPENCOURSEWARE
• UC Irving OCW