Reasons to attend Security BSides St John's 2011 (part 2)

So you've heard about the Security BSides St John's 2011 event and wonder if you'll sign up to attend? Well if you do you'll be able to take in a variety of information security talks from leaders in the field, while  having the opportunity to meet other information security practitioners, and researchers. In this week's 'Reasons to attend Security BSides St John's 2011' I'm highlighting Ajay Sood's talk entitled "Modern Malware Exposed!":

Modern Malware Exposed!
Ajay K. Sood, Territory Manager for FireEye.

The evolution of malware has yielded some shocking results. Sophisticated botnets like Zeus/ZBOT have infiltrated numerous secure zones and established communication channels globally, giving botnet herders unprecedented access to systems and data which should be protected, were it not for the fact that these compromises are going largely unnoticed, despite current controls in place. The latest strains of modern malware have been architected to exploit stealthily via the browser and application, and leverage approved communication methods and channels to call back, which make solving the malware question all the more daunting. This presentation will take a look at the trend of modern malware, and what the challenges surrounding it are.

Preparing for Apache Karaf 2.1.5

The fifth maintenance release of the Apache Karaf 2.1.x branch has moved into the planning phase, as such I'm starting to prepare for the release management role.

Preparing for the Apache Karaf 2.1.5 release.

To prepare I've selected a bottle of Jacob's Creek Merlot 2007 to decant while listening to The Novaks' latest album Things Fall Apart. I'll also be watching them live too, hopefully during the release candidate build process. I really have to thank our community of contributors, they allow me to enjoy this process on a regular basis - you all rock :)

The wine, as always, will only be sampled after being given proper time to breath in its container - much like our RC will only be promoted after proper attentions have been made (see our release guide for more details on our process).

Unfortunately I can't share the wine with you, but I can share the below link to a track from Things Fall Apart.

I'm looking forward to starting the 2.1.5 release process. I'll be posting updates to our Twitter stream (#karaf) and on our IRC channel (irc.codehaus.org #karaf).

Reasons to attend Security BSides St John's 2011 (part 1)

So you've heard about the Security BSides St John's 2011 event and wonder if you'll sign up to attend? Well if you do you'll be able to take in a variety of information security talks from leaders in the field, while  having the opportunity to meet other information security practitioners, and researchers. In this week's 'Reasons to attend Security BSides St John's 2011' I'm highlighting Kellman Meghu's talk entitled "Virtually Safe?":

Virtually Safe?
Kellman Meghu, Security Engineering Manager for Check Point Canada.

Is your organization moving towards virtualization? The push for greener solutions that do more with less, has made people take a hard look at a virtualization strategy for managing infrastructure. Multi-core architectures have brought a new level of power to the end users, but without the software being specifically designed to take full advantage of it, there is no perceivable benefit coming from these systems. This presentation seeks to demonstrate unique ways to not just ensure threat management for a virtual infrastructure, but to also leverage it as part of the infrastructure change. When you take away the buzz, and the clouds abate, will you be left with clear skies?