3112, 2023

DeepSec wishes a Happy New Year 2024!

René Pfeiffer/ December 31, 2023/ Administrivia, Communication

We have been radio-silent throughout the December, because post-processing DeepSec and DeepINTEL 2023 took longer than usual. For everyone doing system maintenance, the month of December is also a wonderful opportunity to do some work behind the scenes. Thanks to the security bulletin about SMTP smuggling, there were some additional workarounds that needed attention. There will be another pause until we announce the next call for papers in February 2024. We have not yet decided on the focus. If you have some ideas, let us know. Enjoy the quiet days, and have a good transition into the new year 2024!

0902, 2023

Call for Papers Preparations, Social Media, and other Updates

René Pfeiffer/ February 9, 2023/ Administrivia, Communication, DeepIntel

Our traditional Winter break has been a bit longer than anticipated. We are working on the call for papers for DeepSec and DeepINTEL 2023 (14 to 17 November 2023). The location has not changed, so we can focus on the content of the conferences. This is a good time to check if you are on our call for papers mailing list. If you like our regular reminders and updates, please subscribe or tell us what email address we should add. Speaking of communication, the sabotage of Twitter continues. Today the APIs for posting content are limited to paid subscribers. This deliberately stops cross-posting content to Twitter from other sources. It affects updates from our blogs and updates via mobile phones, because we never used the official Twitter app (and will not in the future).

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3011, 2022

DeepINTEL Report: The view from Vienna: OPSEC, Iran’s cyberpower, and tech decoupling

René Pfeiffer/ November 30, 2022/ DeepIntel, Security Intelligence

We are a bit late with the summaries from our event. Let’s start with some public information from DeepINTEL 2022. The conference is a closed event where security experts can openly discuss updates on threats, capabilities of potential adversaries, and all kinds of intelligence information related to information security. Steph Shample, an expert from the Middle East Institute (MEI), gave an update on Iran’s capabilities in past and present APT, cybercrime, ransomware, and cryptocurrency. The connections of Iran with China and Russia were discussed, too. Given the invasion of Ukraine, Russia is trying to get support for its digital operations. Mohammed Soliman, also from the Middle East Institute, presented his research on the technology containment strategy by the US administration. The stance regarding 5G serves as a blueprint. It is important to emphasise that

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1611, 2022

DeepINTEL 2022 has started – Conference on Security Intelligence

René Pfeiffer/ November 16, 2022/ Conference, DeepIntel

We often abuse the term big picture as an analogy for a better perspective on things. With security intelligence, this is true. The DeepINTEL conference covers the strategic aspects of IT security, analyses the capabilities of potential (and actual) adversaries, and helps to bridge the gap between individual experiences of security researchers and targets. DeepINTEL 2022 has started. Topic-wise advanced persistent threats, the current geopolitical situation, psychological warfare with digital means, and techniques of malicious software in attacks are the primary focus. Selected aspects will be published in articles on this blog after the conference, because the DeepINTEL is a TLP:AMBER event.

0208, 2021

Thanks for your submission! We are working on final reviews.

René Pfeiffer/ August 2, 2021/ Conference

In the past months we kept blogging about various issues in information security and news regarding our event in November. The Summer months are hard on the process of following news with articles. A lot of things happen, and software still has security-relevant bugs. It’s just that fewer people (than usual) care. We care, and therefore we will complete the reviews of your submissions. The preliminary schedule will be published soon. Thanks for taking your time! We appreciate your contributions. You have made the reviews very hard, as every year. 😉 If you still have some ideas, feel free to submit them!

1904, 2021

DeepSec, ROOTS and DeepINTEL Update – Call for Papers open

René Pfeiffer/ April 19, 2021/ Administrivia, Call for Papers, Conference, DeepIntel

Planning events is still challenging. The COVID-19 pandemic celebrated its first birthday. Despite efforts not to have the second birthday of the pandemic, the ever changing regulations and statues updates regarding the infections make preparations for conferences very hard. We know you want to plan as well, therefore we have an update for you. DeepSec, ROOTS, and DeepINTEL will happen on-site here in Vienna. We closely coordinate with our conference hotel. Their staff is eager to reopen. Everything depends on the rate of vaccination and the regulations issued by the European and Austrian authorities. There is not much we can influence. Given our health protection measure we worked out last year, we are well prepared to handle everything short of a total lockdown. We don’t do any forecasts at the moment. The next months

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0202, 2021

DeepSec / DeepINTEL 2021 Preparations – Save the Dates! Document your Projects!

René Pfeiffer/ February 2, 2021/ Administrivia

Usually we are radio silent during December and the beginning of January. This is due to some well-deserved rest, infrastructure updates (we run a lot ourselves), content creation (in our own projects), and the general Christmas holidays. The COVID-19 lock-down made it different to tell if there are holidays or not. Every day looks mostly like yesterday. We would like to change this. So please keep the following dates in your mind and in your calendar: DeepSec 2021 Trainings – 16 / 17 November 2021 DeepSec 2021 Conference – 18 / 19 November 2021 (including ROOTS & ACOD) DeepINTEL 2021 Conference – 18 November 2021 The Call for Papers will open soon and will be published here in our blog (along with push messages to Twitter and Xing). If you are interested in getting

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0710, 2020

DeepSec 2020 Press Release: Digital information security has human weaknesses – DeepINTEL Security Intelligence Conference discusses strategic IT security in Vienna.

Sanna/ October 7, 2020/ DeepIntel

In the last few decades, everyday professional and private life has been increasingly permeated by modern technologies and networked communication. In addition to many conveniences, this has also created difficult challenges for information security. Therefore more and more complex technical solutions are celebrated at many security conferences. The problem with the problems that are to be solved in this way: The human factor and its weak points, which can do totally without digitization. The DeepINTEL conference therefore deals with the interrelationships and strategic background of information security in order to minimize threats and improve protection in the long term. Errors in the System are part of the Foundation Reports of data leaks and spectacular break-ins appear in the news again and again. Unfortunately, only the results are shown. Of course, the search for clues

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0807, 2020

Administrivia: DeepSec/DeepINTEL/ROOTS Speaker Benefits extended to 2021

René Pfeiffer/ July 8, 2020/ Call for Papers, Conference

The Call for Papers of DeepSec, DeepINTEL, and ROOTS have a deadline. DeepSec and DeepINTEL have set he first deadline to 31 July 2020. We will accept submissions after this date, but everyone who submitted before the deadline will be reviewed first. Since all speakers are entitled to benefits which depend on their presence at the conference we decided to extend these offers. If you submit your presentation for the 2020 events and cannot attend, then all benefits such as entry to the conference, travel cost reimbursement, our famous speaker’s dinner, your stay at the hotel, and everything else will stay valid until DeepSec 2021. The only condition is that your content must be presented (either virtually or by proxy). The offer is valid for DeepSec and ROOTS. DeepINTEL is a special case, because

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0107, 2020

Lectures on Information Security

René Pfeiffer/ July 1, 2020/ Discussion, High Entropy

It’s time for an editorial to end our premature Covid-19 induced Summer break. We (as in the staff behind DeepSec/DeepINTEL) were busy with projects, preparations, following the news about the pandemic, and collecting information for our event(s) in November. Personally I have been involved in teaching for decades. The past months have shifted the focus heavily on virtual presences in the form of teleconferences. Keeping hundreds of students busy while explaining how operating systems work and how secure code looks tends to take up some of your time. Good network connections and decent hardware helped a lot, but there are a couple of problems with conveying content, concepts, and ideas. Let me show you what I mean. Getting good tutorials is hard. The new agile way of computer science is to ditch good documentation

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2905, 2020

Administrivia Update: Regulations, Ticket Shop, and DeepSec

René Pfeiffer/ May 29, 2020/ Administrivia, Conference

Clear guidelines for events and conferences slowly emerge here in Austria. We have some news on how DeepSec, DeepINTEL, and ROOTS will look like in November. We will compile the set of regulations in a separate document and publish it on our web site. The constraints set by the authorities contain no show-stoppers for the event and the trainings. We will carefully work out a concept which we will use in November for everything that is going on on site in Vienna. 😷 We have the full support of our conference hotel, and we are confident that we can increase health protection and decrease risks for everyone attending. In addition we found some bug in the ticket shop system. The tickets for DeepINTEL, DeepSec conference / training, and ROOTS can be bought via the

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0205, 2020

Update on DeepSec / DeepINTEL / ROOTS 2020 with regards to Covid-19

René Pfeiffer/ May 2, 2020/ Administrivia, Discussion, High Entropy

Lacking time travel we have no way to know what will happen in November 2020. That’s not news to us. We closely follow the development of the current Covid-19 crisis, and we constantly evaluate our plans for DeepSec, DeepINTEL, and ROOTS 2020. Given the current state of affairs and the experiments in various countries (including Austria) with lowering the restrictions for business and public life, we believe that our conferences can take place in November. There may be restrictions still present in November with regard to travel and protection measures at our venue. We have developed a schedule for keeping you informed. Additionally we have plans for changing the schedule in order to guarantee the minimum level of content required by our call for papers process. Updates regarding the state of our events in

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1704, 2020

Contact Tracing and the Security of Things

René Pfeiffer/ April 17, 2020/ Call for Papers, Discussion

The spread of Sars-Cov-2 keeps everyone on their toes. Given the emotional state after weeks and months of physical distancing (which we recommend; social distancing has been the norm for decades). We have closed our office in March and heavily rely on telecommunication. Fortunately we did not need to reinvent the Internet. Many of you have probably done the same. We hope that you manage to stay healthy until things can get back to “normal”. Speaking of communication and normality, there are some aspects of the current situation we like to point out. Every security conference features presentations shedding light on important tools, libraries, applications, or protocols people rely on. Humans like to communicate. The degree varies, but essentially few can do without talking, writing, hearing, or seeing stuff (i.e. messages). This is even

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2602, 2020

Continuous Integration Ticket Shop for Conference Tickets is now open – book often, book early!

René Pfeiffer/ February 26, 2020/ Administrivia, Conference, DeepIntel

Running an event is a highly dynamic operation. This is especially true for (information security) conferences, even more so for trainings. We have seen our share of sad faces when the training of your choice didn’t happen, because people booked the ticket too late. In order to avoid great disappointments, the ticket shops for DeepSec and DeepINTEL are now open. Spread the word! And put some SDL into your tickets – book early, book often!

2602, 2020

DeepSec 2020 Call for Papers is open!

René Pfeiffer/ February 26, 2020/ Call for Papers, Conference

We are looking for presentations and trainings for the next DeepSec In-Depth Security Conference. DeepSec 2020 will explore the focus masquerade. Attribution is hard. To make matters worse for everyone connected to information security – masquerade is ubiquitously present in hardware and software. You might also call some of it disinformation, which was the world of the year 2019. Security-wise many things hide behind a façade. Disinformation is the tool of the trade these days. So DeepSec 2020 has chosen the motto “Masquerade” for this year. Tell us where the veils are, what camouflages are used, and expose the real threats! You can submit your content via our call for papers page on our web site. We have also a special email address for content submissions. You can either use cfp [at] deepsec [dot]

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