AusCERT 2011, booth babes and all: pics

(Credit: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia)

Graham Ingram, who has been the general manager of AusCERT for almost a decade, explained to attendees the difference between AusCERT and CERT Australia.

"AusCERT is self funded, we are not government and we are part of the university of Queensland — we are fiercely independent," he said. "We are helping businesses mitigate cyber attacks and have been in operation since 1993".

(Credit: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia)

Welsh comedian Bennett Arron was the opening keynote speaker, describing how he became the victim of identity theft and then went on to steal the identity of the UK's then-Home Secretary, Charles Clarke.

(Credit: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia)

Harrods was one of the organisations where the fake Bennett Arron had run up huge bills. When the real Bennett wrote to the upper class London store and asked for compensation, he was, unsurprisingly, refused.

(Credit: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia)

"Somebody did have a passport apparently in my name and i haven't been able to trace that, so there could be somebody going around the world with a passport in my name, which is worrying — but i collect air miles, so pros and cons really."

(Credit: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia)

We had a great interview with Will Gragido, a Chicago-based ex Marine from HP DV Labs. He talked about cyber reputations, people trafficking, identity theft, espionage and a whole heap more. Watch out for these articles in the coming days.

(Credit: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia)

The Kaspersky girls were back, but after controversy over their skimpy outfits last year, they were in a more modest mood.

(Credit: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia)

Paul Ducklin from Sophos was again on the stand, this being his ninth conference. Not bad. We're still looking for someone who has been to all ten of the AusCERT conferences.

IBM this year had a magician on its stand. He was pulling $50 notes out of fruit. Was this in any way making up for the company handing out malware in its USB drives last year?

(Credit: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia)

We couldn't figure out what the Trend Micro booth babes were dressed as. Caption competition anyone?