About René Pfeiffer

System administrator, lecturer, hacker, security consultant, technical writer and DeepSec organisation team member. Has done some particle physics, too. Prefers encrypted messages for the sake of admiring the mathematical algorithms at work.

3107, 2017

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!

2707, 2017

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

2707, 2017

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

1907, 2017

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

1407, 2017

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

2606, 2017

ROOTS 2017, DeepSec, and DeepINTEL Call for Papers are still open

René Pfeiffer/ June 26, 2017/ Call for Papers, Internet, Security, Security Intelligence

Our wonderful world of technology is full of surprises, bugs, intentional weaknesses, adversaries, defenders, vendors, and users. Some software just got more lines of code instead of a decent audit or refactoring. Everything is turning smart, but no one knows what smart really means. Big Data is all the fashion, Big Knowledge still isn’t. So there is ample opportunity for security research. And we haven’t mentioned recent weaknesses such as Stack Clash or broken hyperthreading yet. Strategy hasn’t evolved much either. Most high profile attacks seem to contain a lot of cyber, originating from Russia, USA, Israel, North Korea, or China. The context matters, as do the agendas of all parties involved. A thorough and careful analysis can shape the digital defence of your future. This is why we like to discuss methods, incidents,

2006, 2017

BSidesLondon 2017 – Sharing is indeed Caring

René Pfeiffer/ June 20, 2017/ Discussion, High Entropy

When airport security meets information security it’s usually BSidesLondon time. It was a great experience. And since DeepSec sponsors the Rookie Track we had a very tough decision to make. It’s really hard to pick a winner. A lot of presentations were excellent, and the presenters made the most out of the 15 minutes. The winner is Thaís for her introduction to malware analysis by using satisfiability modulo theories (SMT). If you get the chance of seeing her presenting somewhere, take a seat and listen to her. We also like to recommend Colette‘s presentation titled ‘How the f**k do I get in? One woman’s struggle to break into cyber security!’. Despite the title it was not a rant, it was a clear and concise summary of the state of affairs for women in technology.

2505, 2017

The Future of Entangled Security States – Quantum Computing Conference in Berlin

René Pfeiffer/ May 25, 2017/ Conference, Security

Quantum computing is a fashionable term these days. Some IT news articles are talking about post-quantum cryptography, qbits, and more quantum stuff. If you don’t know how the terms relate to each other, what entangled states in quantum physics are, and what everything has to do with computing, then you will have a hard time figuring out what it means for you and your infrastructure. The relationship to cryptography is yet another matter best explored after you know the basics. Using quantum effects in computing and cryptography is already done. The best example are some hardware random generators which use properties of, well, the hardware to harvest entropy. And then there is quantum key distribution (QKD). It is a method to ensure secure communication between two or more nodes. Vienna even had a working

2305, 2017

Biometrics and Failures in understanding Security – Copy & Paste Iris Scans

René Pfeiffer/ May 23, 2017/ High Entropy, Security

Biometrics has an irresistible attraction. Simply by mentioning the fact that you can measure parts (or surfaces) of the body and convert them to numbers a lot of people are impressed out of their mind. Literally. In theory biometric information serves as a second set of data to be used for any purposes. A common purpose is to use it for authentication. Most physical sources of biometric data are easily accessible. Fingers (for fingerprints), eyes (for your iris), limbs (for your veins), voice (for the Cloud), and other examples show this well. Where does the security come into play? Well, it doesn’t. For starters, passwords can be changed. Biometrics can’t unless you have a transplant. In contrast to passwords biometrics can be faked. The biometric source can be copied. In most cases this is

1605, 2017

Disinformation Warfare – Attribution makes you Wannacry

René Pfeiffer/ May 16, 2017/ Discussion, High Entropy, Security Intelligence

After the Wannacry malware wreaked havoc in networks, ticket vending machines, companies, and hospitals the clean-up has begun. This also means that the blame game has started. The first round of blame was distributed between Microsoft and the alleged inspiration for the code. The stance on vulnerabilities of security researchers is quite clear. Weaknesses in software, hardware, protocols, or design needs to be documented and published. This is the only way to address the problem and to give the defenders a chance to react. The discussion about how to deal with the process is ongoing and will most likely never come to a conclusion. What about the source of the attack? Attribution is hard. Knowing who attacked has become increasingly difficult in the analogue world. Take any of the conflicts around the world and

1405, 2017

Wannacry, Code Red, and „Cyber“ Warfare

René Pfeiffer/ May 14, 2017/ High Entropy, Security

Society and businesses increasingly rely on networked infrastructure. This is not news. Worms that used networks to spread to new hosts in order to infect them is also not news. Code Red did this back in 2001. There is a new worm going around. Its name is Wannacry, and it is allegedly based on published attack code developed by the NSA. The malicious software is delivered by email. After successful installation it infects the host and propagates to other systems by using probes to port 139/TCP, 445/TCP and 3389/TCP. It belongs to the class of ransomware, encrypting files and demanding ransom. Thousands of infected systems are still active. The attack is still ongoing. If you are in doubt if you have compromised systems within your network, we recommend taking a look at how to

1205, 2017

DeepSec welcomes SEC Consult as Sponsor for 2017!

René Pfeiffer/ May 12, 2017/ Conference, Security

Testing products, production code, security measures, or the overall security of infrastructure is hard work. The typical needs in term of information technology for a company or an organisation has become a variety of components that need to be maintained and hardened against attacks. The devil is in the details. In order to find critical weaknesses you need decades of experience, a thorough understanding of the technologies in use, in-depth knowledge of processes that touch information technology, and a decent portion of creativity to come up with ways around obstacles. SEC Consult, our long-time sponsor, has all of this – and more. They publish their findings and offer consulting for anyone needing extra security. Take a look at the House of Keys project, the IoT Inspector, or gaping holes in digital forensics software that

0105, 2017

Call for Papers: 1st Reversing and Offensive-Oriented Trends Symposium (ROOTs) 2017

René Pfeiffer/ May 1, 2017/ Call for Papers, Conference

ROOTs 2017 The first Reversing and Offensive-Oriented Trends Symposium (ROOTs) 2017 opens its call for papers. ROOTs is the first European symposium of its kind. ROOTS aims to provide an industry-friendly academic platform to discuss trends in exploitation, reversing, offensive techniques, and effective protections. Submissions should provide novel attack forms, describe novel reversing techniques or effective deployable defenses. Submissions can also provide a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art, and pinpoint promising areas that have not received appropriate attention in the past. To facilitate interaction with industry, the ROOTs ticket will be valid for all DeepSec conference tracks on both days, including the industry tracks, and the DeepSec conference tickets for the industry track will be valid for ROOTs. The usual rules for academic discounts apply. Please contact the DeepSec staff or our sponsors for

2804, 2017

DeepINTEL Update, Science First Campaign, Early Birds, and other News

René Pfeiffer/ April 28, 2017/ Administrivia, Conference

The Easter break is over. We didn’t sleep (much), and we did not look for Easter eggs in software either. Instead we did a bit of work behind the scenes. DeepSec 2017 will have some more content due to the co-hosted ROOTs workshop. The full call for papers will be ready on 1 May 2017. We will publish the text here on this blog, and email it to interested researchers. In the meantime the DeepSec 2017 Call for Papers is waiting patiently for your submission. In case you haven’t noticed, the DeepSec and DeepINTEL ticket shops are online. Please book your ticket as early as possible! Every year so far we had some people at our conference who were very sad because their favourite training was not available. If you book early you’ll help us to secure

About René Pfeiffer

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: