DeepSec 2013 Talk: Cultural Learning Of China To Make Benefit Glorious Profession Of Infosec

René Pfeiffer/ November 11, 2013/ Communication, Conference, Security Intelligence

If something happens in your network, it’s an established custom to blame it on China. This approach is tried and true among the Chief Information Officers (CIOs) who have some explaining to do. Throw in the inevitable Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) and you are set. No more explanations necessary. Why is that? Well, most people don’t know, therefore Wim Remes of IOactive will give you a thorough overview in his talk titled Cultural Learning Of China To Make Benefit Glorious Profession Of InfoSec.

Geopolitics is a good start. The current debate about the role of China as a nation, in international hacking incidents and corporate espionage is framed in an almost exclusively US-centric narrative. Using your adversaries as scapegoat works well, provided you talk to like-minded people and nations. China, however, is a nation that has been familiar with innovation, economics and societal (im)balances long before Christopher Columbus accidentally landed in the New World. Wim’s talk will take the audience on a rollercoaster ride across more than 5000 years of history and cultural heritage that will allow you to not only understand the reality of APT and state-sponsored hacking. When it comes to threats on high levels you absolutely have to understand the background up to the point of culture and history. Only by doing this can you correctly assess the threat and improve your protection.

We will open the DeepSec 2013 conference with this talk. It combines the topics security intelligence, information security, geopolitics, and risk assessment perfectly. Marcus Ranum will follow with his keynote talk on the second day in order to complement the discussion about the influence of nation states on information security. Do not miss both talks!

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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.