AusCERT 2010 kicks off: photos

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AusCERT is being held at the RACV Royal Pines Resort.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
Stands received attention on Sunday night as delegates enjoyed food and drink.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
AusCERT general manager Graham Ingram realises he's being caught on camera.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
An IBM stand gamer gets a high score.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
The Fortinet stand, with definitely the best beer.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
Microsoft's Surface draws a crowd.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
Paul Ducklin, Sophos head of technology, Asia Pacific

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
Shooting hoops with Alphawest.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
The booth babes are back at AusCERT 2010. This is the Kaspersky stand — awaiting the arrival of the company's founder, Eugene Kaspersky.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
A mystery guest arrives in style.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
AusCERT general manager Graham Ingram once again explains the work of the Computer Emergency Response Team and stresses that AusCERT is far more than just an annual conference. He urges delegates to talk to each other, network and share ideas to help improve the overall level of security.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
Whitfield Diffie, also known as "Whit" and one of the founders of public key cryptography, presents the opening keynote at AusCERT 2010, titled, "An historical look at cloud computing".

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
Whit also warned that internet users are "putting a tremendous amount of faith" in the Google founder's public intention to "not be evil" because they can see what everyone is looking for and what they're interested in.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
Whit said the cloud as we know it could substantially improve the average level of security of ordinary users who don't need to (or want to) pay attention.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
(Credit: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia)
The second keynote on day one was presented by Bob Maley, the founder of Strategic CISO. Maley was fired from his job as the CISO for the State of Pennsylvania after he publicly disclosed the state Department of Transportation's security woes.

Maley said companies have a responsibility to their stock holders — unlike governments, which he said should be held responsible to the citizens but are not.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Caption by: Munir Kotadia
Dr Crispin Cowen, who for many years was a vocal Linux security guru and Microsoft critic, recently started working for the Redmond-based software giant. His talk on the first day of AusCERT 2010 was titled "Stranger in a strange land: Reflections of a Linux guy in Microsoft Windows".

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
Crispin said he went to Microsoft with a heap of ideas on how the company should change its Windows OS to make it more secure, and although the company did listen to all his ideas and even tested them, none of them worked because of the basic architecture of Windows and the need for backward capability. He said many applications actually depend on legacy Windows bugs in order to function.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
Crispin's very amusing presentation also pointed out the many flaws in Windows, such as the ability for one desktop application to inject a thread into another application and run arbitrary code in that application's address space.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia
He also pointed out some basic flaws in Linux when running as a desktop operating system.

Published: May 17, 2010 -- 05:06 GMT (22:06 PDT)
Photo by: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Caption by: Munir Kotadia

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The nation's security elite have travelled to the Gold Coast to pick each other's brains on how best to keep users and companies safe from IT bugs. Enjoy the photos of last night's drinks and this morning's speakers.

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AusCERT 2010 kicks off: photos

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