Network Security Blog

Last year Didier Stevens wrote up some of the precautions he took for Black Hat Europe 2007. My work laptop is already using whole disk encryption, so I’m not worried about that and I’ve never put any sensitive information on my Mac Book Pro. I’d say updating your OS and making backups before heading out are very high on my to-do list. I have Time Machine working on the MBP right now.

Black Hat 2008 is fast approaching, and I’m really looking forward to it. And as a bit of a teaser, there’s a “Forbidden Sneak Peek” webinar this afternoon. Unluckily, I’ll be boarding a plane somewhere about half way through the presentation, but I’m hoping to get a good enough signal in the airport to at least watch the beginning of the event.

I’m also looking forward to seeing a lot of friends and security professionals I only get to see a couple of times a year. Christofer Hoff will be giving a talk on virtualization; there’s a strange rumor that he may be doing it as interpretive dance. Jeremiah Grossman is co-presenter on all the dangers of Web 2.0 and the dangers of the business logic presently in use. Hacker Court will be in full swing once again, I just hope there are no pictures of Simple Nomad this year. And Johnathan Squire will be giving a talk on UPnP, which will probably go over my head, but will be full of energy and information none the less.

There’s also going to be a lot of opportunities to talk to other security bloggers and podcasters throughout the week. Alan will be there, Mike Murray better be there, and I’m hoping some of my friends like Michael Farnum and Cutaway will be able to drive up from Texas to visit, especially since Cutaway is organizing a team for the L0st challenge at Defcon over the weekend. It’ll also be the second time Rich and I have had a chance to meet face to face since we started podcasting together.

Speaking of podcasting, Rich and I are starting to formulate our plans for the event. We got a lot of positive feedback from the ‘microcasts’ we did at RSA 2008 and we plan on doing more of the same for Black Hat and Defcon. Rich is helping out at both events and I’ve applied for a press pass, so we should have some really good opportunities to interview speakers and other interesting people at both events. I’m going to take my Canon HD video camera in addition to my H4 Zoom, so I may even get more video this year. I know I’m going to be taking time to hang out at the Lock Pick Village again, especially since that ended up being some of the most popular video I ever did.

Black Hat and Defcon are both great opportunities to learn, meet people, and generally have a great time. Not to mention get a little drinking in at night. Really, please don’t mention that last part to my wife and kids, who might end up joining me for a day or two in Vegas. Well, at least they’ll be there somewhere while I learn, meet people, drink and have a great time.