Last Call – DeepSec 2017 “Science First!” – Call for Papers

René Pfeiffer/ July 31, 2017/ Administrivia, Call for Papers

Today our Call for Papers for DeepSec 2017 (motto Science first!) officially ends. We are still up to our necks in submissions, but if you have content and want to join, then make sure you submit now! All in-time submissions will be preferred over the ones that missed the d(r)eadline! The call for papers for the 1st Reversing and Offensive-oriented Trends Symposium 2017 (ROOTS) still runs until 5 August 2017. Make sure you don’t miss this deadline in case you want to beef up the science content of infosec! Our reviewers love to hear from you!

Unicorns in the Wild – Information Security Skills and how to achieve them

René Pfeiffer/ July 27, 2017/ Discussion, High Entropy, Security

Everyone talks about information security, countering „cyber“ threats, endless feats of hackers gone wrong/wild, and more epic stories. Once you have realised that you are reading the news and not a script for a TV series, you are left with one question: What are information security skills? The next question will probably be: How do you train to be „information secure“? Let’s take a look at possible answers. First of all, yes, you can study information security or security-related topics. Universities, schools, and companies offer lectures, training, exercises, etc. Great. However it may not help you right away. We talked with top quality head hunters from a nameless big corporation. When they look for infosec specialists, they filter for anyone having worked in three different fields related to computer science (applied or otherwise) for

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DeepINTEL Schedule updated – Psychology and Power Grids

René Pfeiffer/ July 27, 2017/ Administrivia, Conference

We have updated the schedule for DeepINTEL 2017. The human mind and power grids are both critical infrastructure. Both can be manipulated and switched off, arguably. And most of us use both every day. So this is why we added two more presentations to the schedule. Stefan Schumacher of the Magdeburg Institute for Security Research talks about Manipulating Human Memory for Fun and Profit. Since memory is crucial for forensics, you should spent some thoughts on this matter. Your brain doesn’t cope well with cryptographically signed timestamps or hashes. Since you need to understand all aspects of the environment, the human psychology is part of every „cyber“ strategy – before and after incidents. Mathias Dalheimer’s presentation is titled The Power Grid is vulnerable – and it’s really hard to fix this. Anyone familiar with physics

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Malicious Software explores new Business Models – Politics

René Pfeiffer/ July 19, 2017/ Discussion, Internet, Security

Malicious software has become a major component of criminal business and geopolitics. In addition it is a convenient explanation for anything one does not want to investigate. Since code always come from somewhere you have to ask yourself many more questions when it comes to infected networks and compromised hosts. What is the agenda of the day? Journalist Erich Moechel has written an article about the arms race regarding malicious software. We have translated the original text from German to English. Expect the state of cyber in your network to rise in the course of the next years. Arms race with Malicious Software enters a dangerous Phase The enormous damage done by “Petya” and “WannaCry” can be traced back to a single, reworked tool from the leaked NSA pool of the “Shadow Brokers”. Experts

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Digital Security of the Future: Technology and Algorithms alone are no Substitute for Strategy

René Pfeiffer/ July 14, 2017/ Conference, Security Intelligence

Unfortunately, you can not rely on antivirus programs when it comes to the security of your own business. Antivirus programs do not read newspapers, they do not attend lectures, they don’t protect you from social engineering or know the meaning of Facebook friends or Twitter tweets. False friends, indeed. The continuous monitoring and evaluation of threats is the next step in information security. This aspect has always been an important part of digital defense. Today’s discussion often centers around the term Security Intelligence, which unites different approaches. The DeepINTEL is Austria’s first event, which, since 2012, has been taking up this topic – in all its facets, because modern information security is interdisciplinary. Lectures by experts from various fields of science, defence and industry: At DeepINTEL you have the opportunity to strategically rethink your

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