.:Computer Defense:.

My Tuesday and Wednesday this week were occupied by the first ever SecTor (Security Education Conference Toronto) . Over the next couple of days, I'm going to write-up my thoughts about the speakers that I saw but I thought that I would first give an overview of the conference itself.

The schedule provided for two full days of talks with keynotes in the morning and at lunch. When I saw the speaker list for the first time, I was rather impressed, they had quite a few big names. I was, however, disappointed with the technical level of the talks. Not that the talks were bad, in fact they were great, but I had expected them to occur at a much lower level. I've been informed that they were roughly the same technical level as the talks at Black Hat. I think the issue was that I had expected more due to the wording on the SecTor website. In the end, even with the level of the talks, I enjoyed myself for pretty much the entire time that I was there.

Then there was the food... it was pretty impressive. Breakfast was your traditional continental breakfast: coffee or juice, croissants, muffins and danishes. Lunch on Day 1 was: Buns, Caesar Salad, an Antipasto platter, steamed veggies, cheese cannelloni, salmon quiche and dessert. Lunch on the second day was very similar, however a pasta dish (chicken, black olives, and other ingredients) was substituted for the cannelloni, and we had broccoli quiche instead of the salmon. There was also a Cocktail reception at the end of Day 1 sponsored by CheckPoint and on top of free alcohol (which was very generously poured), there was even more food. Spring rolls, chicken skewers, mini quiche and various hors d'oeuvres.

I don't know yet if I'll be attending next year but if I am, I think that I might like to see a lower price tag. I'm guessing the cost was where it was partially because it was the first year and sponsorship, while it included a number of big names, was limited. As well, I'd like to see the scheduling of the speakers occur slightly differently. There were times when I would have liked to see 2 or 3 of the talks that were taking place at the same time and other times when nothing really stood out to me. In the end though, I enjoyed everything I saw and that made the con worthwhile. I have to say kudos to the organizers, it was a job well done.

Over the next couple of days, I'll be doing write-ups on each of the speakers that I saw... this will include:

1. Dr. Richard Reiner (Keynote)
2. Rares Stefan
3. Ira Winkler (Keynote)
4. Mike Shema
5. Rohit Sethi / Nish Bhalla
6. Steve Riley (Keynote)
7. Dan Kaminsky
8. Johnny Long
9. Jay Graver / Ryan Poppa

View Presentations (Slide Decks and Audio)