The AVAR conference 2012 in Hangzhou, China
IT security specialists discuss and shape their industry’s future
This year’s AVAR Conference is covering a lot of trending topics ranging from mobile malware to botnets. Seji Murakami, Chairman of AVAR, traditionally opened the conference with a warm welcome speech. This year, the keynote speeches were focused on Android security product testing (AV-Test), preventive actions concerning malware in China (CERT China) and malware trends (Microsoft).
IT security specialists now gathered for the 15th edition of the conference and it always tried to highlight the specific problems related to Asian malware. One of the main topics over here is “working all together against cybercrime” which is, unfortunately, not always an easy thing to do.
If you are interested in the agenda and information about the other topics discussed, you can find a lot of information on the AVAR Conference 2012 website. Furthermore, more info about the next conference’s venue and future topics will also follow on the official AVAR homepage.
This article can be found also on the G Data Blog.
Three importants AV industry events in a row
EICAR
While the EICAR conference 2011 was dominated by the buzzword cyberwar, the 2012 EICAR conference, actually the 21st, was focusing on ‘Cyber Attacks – Myths and Reality in Contemporary Context’. The conference took place at the Marriott Hotel in Lisbon.
The recent past brought a considerable shift in the underground malware authors’ mentality; a swing from the thrill-seeking geek striving for flame or glory to the professional culprit methodologies and, even more importantly, the inadequate expertise of the average user, for monetary gain. The next contemporary threat scenario calls for an adaptation of the technology and the defense methodologies. Even if scientific research would provide the baseline for some innovations, we still need to have a more holistic approach on the implementation of new innovations. This conference therefore invited researchers to address some of these issues in their papers.
This year’s event was another great one and we are already looking forward to the next one, including some new initiatives from EICAR which should appear soon on the EICAR’s website. If things turn out as planned, the EICAR 2013 conference will be held in Cologne, Germany, 9-11 June 2013. (more…)
Several important events in one month
4 fruitful meetings and thriving events: G Data at AMTSO, RSA , CeBIT and Infosecurity Belgium
The end of February and March have always been dedicated to several traditionally important security industry events of the year. This year, it started with an AMTSO Meeting and was followed by the RSA conference, the biggest IT security conference in the US, in the beautiful city of San Francisco. CeBIT, is still one of the most important events in the world for the digital industry, held in Hannover, Germany. The RSA conference and CeBIT traditionally have a lot of other, minor security related meetings where we also participated in.
AMTSO, CARO and EICAR – conferences and events – an overview
The beginning of May was dedicated to three traditionally important security industry events of the year. It started with an AMTSO Meeting, then the CARO Workshop followed and it ended with the EICAR Conference. I participated for G Data in all of them!
You can find the original posting of this article at the G Data Security blog.
G Data is one of the members of AMTSO (www.amtso.org), an organization currently comprised of around 40 members, representing testers, vendors, academics and publishers involved in anti-malware research. I was at the last AMTSO members’ meeting which was held in Prague. As always, a lot of work was done during the workshops: The document “AMTSO Guidelines on Facilitating Testability” was initiated at the suggestion of testers and developed jointly by testers and vendors. The new paper is the latest in a succession of guidelines and best practice documents already published. The AMTSO members also agreed to expand the range of documentation the organization produces to include more educational material. They also introduced changes to the voting procedure to ensure that documents cannot be approved by the members unless a majority of testers agree that the content is up to standard. This step mentioned last is designed to avoid any possibility of bias in favor of any group within the organization.
CeBIT 2011 and G Data
CeBIT starts on March 1st in Hannover, showcasing the latest developments in the IT industry. G Data is using the largest IT trade show in the world this year to launch the next generation of security for businesses and home users. G Data presents this year’s trade fair highlight: Generation 11 of its network solutions, equipped with a powerful backup module in all Enterprise versions. Also being revealed is G Data MobileSecurity, a security solution for Android phones. Mobile phone owners will thus be able to effectively secure their mobiles against malware. Another first that will be announced in Hannover is G Data CloudSecurity. This free browser plug-in blocks infected websites,making surfing the internet more secure. Besides presenting these innovations, the provider from Bochum, Germany is also offering a comprehensive programme in the G Data Arena, Hall 11, Booth D35.
I personally will take part in the Global Conferences during a panel session about the importance of security which is detailed below. It’s an interesting line up of experienced speakers, CEO’s or VP’s which will be sitting next to me. I will be available for interviews and chats the whole week (minus Saturday) at our booth. By the way I like my new title: Global Security Officer. ;-)
Upcoming meetings and events like AMTSO, RSA, CeBIT, etc …
It seems that my busy months are coming up with a lot of travelling. Very soon you can see me speaking at some national and international events.
Close to my home you can find me at ‘This is IT’ in the Netherlands www.apeldoorn-it.nl/congres (3 February 2011). The week afterwards I will teach the teachers at the ICT day for teachers in Belgium http://www.ictdag.be/ (7 February 2011). After this I will be travelling to San Francisco for AMTSO and the RSA conference (14-18 February 2011). The AMTSO members’ meeting will be held at San Mateo, California, on the 10th-11th February, just before RSA. I’m pretty sure that everybody will find some interesting material coming out of the organization in the next few weeks. There’s more information on this year’s AMTSO meetings on the AMTSO meetings page at http://www.amtso.org/meetings.html, including a preliminary agenda.
And don’t forget CeBIT (1-5 March 2011). This year G Data will take an active part in the very famous CeBIT Global Conferences in Hannover. Dr. Dirk Hochstrate will attend the IT-Security panel on Wednesday, 2 March. On the Global Conferences only the top spokesmen of the IT branch are invited to discuss new trends and their visions for the future. At the same moment you can go to our English press conference where you will see me in front of the room.
I will give you more info about our upcoming CeBIT events soon.
New website and the start of my world tour
You possibly already found out by now that I refurbished my personal website otherwise you weren’t reading this.
I really hope you like the new look of this site which took us several weeks to come up with. It was really necessary after a long period of silence I think.
With this new look I’m also starting my world tour where I sometimes will attend some conferences and sometimes will speak at these events.
Just finished with our G Data’s press tour in the Benelux I’m ready for the next events:
- BruCon Conference: Brussels, Belgium (attending)
- Virus Bulletin Conference: Vancouver, Canada (speaking together with Righard Zwienenberg(Norman) about internal attacks and problems in the cloud)
- Infosecurity NL: Utrecht, The Netherlands (attending)
- AAVAR Conference: Bali (speaking together with David Harley(Eset) and Lysa Myers(Westcoast Labs) about product evaluation and malware simulation)
- G Data Japan Press Tour: Tokyo (speaking)
And this is just the beginning … more trips are planned even during the writing of this piece.
One trip could be very interesting but it’s still undecided if I will participate …. but stay tuned as I could meet some VIPS of the world. ;-)
