Forward into 2021

 Well, here we are in 2021.  A lot has happened to all of us this past year.  I think all the security conferences I usually attend this past year from March on were either cancelled or went virtual.  And it looks like the same will occur thru some of this year.

I've also been behind in trying to post regularly on this blog and hope to address this and aim to post at least twice a month.  I am planning on tackling some additional certifications in the cloud and privacy areas, and will be posting on this, as well as areas I have an interest in.  Futher, I plan on presenting at upcoming conferences and events, so will be posting on that.

Here in Florida, I know that BSides Tampa will be virtual in 2021, and I have proposed a few ideas.  Not sure about BSides Orlando.  South Florida ISSA does plan on doing their Hack the Flag, hopefully live.  Both SFISSA and HackMiami will be having regular meetings on-line, as well as South Florida ISACA.

If anyone has any ideas or suggests, please post them.

Upcoming Security Events in Florida

There are several upcoming information security events in Florida that some may not be aware of.

First up is the South Florida ISACA Chapter's annual WOW event.  This year its the thirteenth year of the event.  It will be held on Friday February 21st, 2020, again at FIU's Koven Center at their Biscayne Bay campus.  This is a single-track conference, with various speakers and a panel discussion.  Its usually a good event, and plan on being there.

Next up is Security BSides Tampa.  The seventh year for this event, it will be held Saturday, February 29th, 2020 at the Embassy Suites on the USF Campus in Tampa.  There will be training sessions on Friday.  This event is a multi-track conference, with tracks including CISO, Cloud, and job fair.  They also have other activities like a CTF, Lockpicking, and more.  This is a pretty good event.  Sadly, I don't plan on attending this year.

Then there is Security BSides Orlando.  This will be Saturday, April 11, 2020 at Full Sail University's Live Venue.  I believe they are planning on doing training sessions on Friday.  The schedule hasn't yet been announced.  They also have other activities like CTF, Lockpicking, and more.  This is also a pretty good event and it seems BSides Tampa and Orlando have some of the largest BSides outside of Vegas.  I'm not sure at this point if I'll be going.

Finally, there is HackMiamiCon.  This time it will be Saturday, May 30th, 2020 at Broward Library.  There will be training events on Friday.  This is a change of venue from hotels on Miami Beach, so will remain to be seen how this works out.  They should have other activities like a CTF.  This is also a good event.  Due to a conflict with another event, I may not attend this year.

These are all great events and I encourage folks to check them out and attend.

Report on HackMiamiCon6

HackMiami held its 6th Conference in 2018.  And this year we had another new location, tho it wasn't the organizers fault.  :)  The previous location suffered a fire, so this year they moved to Seacoast Suites.  This limited them a bit, as the rooms were not as spacious as with the Deauville.  And there were few food options within walking distance as with the Deauville. 

That aside, I thought overall they had another great conference.  This year they did an electronic badge, but this was a limited-run add-on, due to cost.

Two days, both kicked off with keynote addresses.  Both were good, and the second day we had Jack Daniel, who is kind of the father of BSides.  There were a good mix of talks and presentations, even a few longer workshops in the evening.  I spoke on the second day on cyber resilience/disaster recovery.  With the recent hit by Irma in Florida (and Maria in PR), I felt this was a good topic. I think it overall went well.

Congrats as always to the HM folks for putting on this conference.  Am surprised that they have already set the date and location for the 2019 conference, and will be back at the Deauville!  Registration is even open on their website!

Upcoming Conferences in early 2018

There are several local security conferences coming up in my general area, some of which I'll be speaking at.

Here are the ones over the next few months:

* SecureMiami 2018, co-located with BrewMiami.  Organized by DigitalEra, this is the second time for this half day event at the main campus of Florida International University.  Held on Saturday, February 10th.  Registration is open NOW and I encourage people to attend.

* ISACA South Florida Chapter's 11th WOW Event is coming up on Friday, February 16th at FIU's Biscayne Bay campus.  The theme: The InfoSec of Things: Emerging issues in Privacy and Security, and have great lineup of speakers.  So register NOW.

* BSides Tampa 2018 is coming up Saturday, February 17th again at Stetson Law in Tampa.  I will be speaking here on the topic of "SOC for Cybersecurity".  I think they are sold out, but check anyway.

* BSides Orlando 2018 is coming up on Saturday, April 7th.  Location this year will be Full Sail Live Venue in Winter Park.  CFP is open, and I've submitted some proposals, and registration is open NOW.

* HackMiamiCon6 is coming up May 18-20.  This year they will be at Sea Coast Suites in Miami Beach.  I will be speaking there on protecting your organization with resilience and disaster recovery.  Registration is open NOW.

So, there are more coming down the road.  Stuff in the summer and stuff coming up in the Fall, especially in October do to Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

Check back for more.  I will be doing postings reporting on these events after they are done.

HackMiamiCon5 Report

The weekend of May 20-21 2017, HackMiamiCon5 was held in Miami Beach at the Deauville Resort.  I've been to all 5 conferences and have spoken at the last 4.  Yeah, on Sunday I spoke on Cyber Resilience.

Overall, this was a good conference.  Unlike in the past, we actually had 2 tracks both Saturday and Sunday.  In the past, there was only one track on Sunday.

Recent events

Am a little behind on posting on some very recent events.

Last week I was at the NIST Cybersecurity Workshop.  Lot of interesting things there.  Further, the prior week Trump signed an Executive Order on Cybersecurity that has an impact on things.

This past weekend I was at the HackMiamiCon5, where I also spoke on cyber resilience.  More on that as well.

Hopefully soon I will be speaking at an upcoming HackMiami meeting on various updates (the NIST CSF Workshop, recent EO, and some other regulations that have come out).

News and upcoming events

One of the news items floating around is the recently signed executive order regarding cybersecurity.  I haven't had a chance to really look over it, but hope to soon and will post my thoughts here.

There are a couple of upcoming events I will be at next week.

First off is the NIST Cybersecurity Framework Workshop at NIST HQ.  I look forward to that.  Should be a great opportunity to gather information, give input, and meet others.  I hope that impact of this new EO will also be covered.

Then next weekend is the HackMiamiCon5 in Miami Beach.  I'll be there, and be speaking on the second day on Cyber Resilience.  Look forward to that.

I will be posting on both events here on the blog, so be sure to check back.

Upcoming Security Conferences for 2017

There are several conferences in the South Florida (and other areas) that I plan to be at in the coming months, and am speaking or hope to be.

BSides Orlando will be April 8th, but now moved to Valencia College-West Campus.  Also different this year is this will be a one day event, but will again be right before SANS Orlando.  I will be there speaking on the topic of Risk.  This talk is aimed at the entry level security professional to help them gain a better understanding of the importance of IT Risk in what we do in security.

The South Florida ISACA Chapter will be having their 10th WOW event on Friday, April 21st.  This will be an all day event at the FIU Biscayne Campus as usual.  Registration is already open and the focus is on "Emerging Threats in Cybersecurity".  Will be there.  Had hoped to speak, but didn't happen.

HackMiami will be back with their 5th conference on May 19-21, again at the Deauville Beach Resort in Miami Beach.  I will be speaking there on the topic of Cyber Resilience.

Further out, there is of course Black Hat, DefCon, BSides out in Las Vegas from July 22-30th.  I have never been out there, and plan to go out for BSides and DefCon.  Barring any financial issues.  I am also planning to submit for BSides.  Probably submit a few of my talks and see if any get picked.  Not sure if what I speak on would be accepted at DefCon.

Interestingly, ISC(2) has moved their Security Congress event out of being co-located with ASIS's conference.  This one will be September 25-27 in Austin, TX.  To be honest, I have no plans to attend this.  I felt their event was a bit pricey.

Now, ASIS, which is more for security folks who deal with physical security then information security, will have their conference September 25-28 in Dallas, TX.  ISSA is working with them to have infosec speakers at this event.  Kind of filling the void that ISC2 left.  And again, Infragard is co-hosting their annual conference there as well.  Sounds interesting, but again, probably will not be at this event.  Just can't afford it.

ISSA will be having their 2017 International Conference in San Diego from October 9-11.  I am on the conference committee for this one again, and again submitted some talk proposals.  Unless one of my talks gets picked I'm not certain I'll go this year. [UPDATE: my talk on Cyber Resilience was picked]. I do want to go next year when it'll be in Atlanta.

Now, the only other conferences this year I look forward to is a possible Security BSides happening in Southwest Florida, where I am from.  Heard about this at BSides Tampa and the group hopes to have this in Ft Myers.  I hope to hear more about it as I'd love to be involved.  Tentative time they are aiming for is June.

Another one I should mention is BSides Jacksonville.  This is usually held in October.  I've never been to one.

If any will be at the above ones I'll be at, stop by and say hi!

Updates on the NIST Cybersecurity Framework

I've previously posted on the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and was very surprised that in the last week there has been some new development in that area.

I especially found this interesting because on June 11th I am presenting my "NIST CSF at 2" presentation to the HackMiami meeting at the Broward Main Library.  This is the presentation I gave at BSides Tampa 2016, and had made a few tweaks.  And so I am doing some updates in light of these developments.

HackMiami 2016 Conference Report

This past weekend, May 13-15, the 2016 HackMiami Conference was held.  This was the fourth time for this annual conference.  Been to every one and this was my second time speaking.

A change for this year is they have a new venue:  Miami Beach Deauville Beach Resort.  They had some problems with the past location, so hopefully there were no issues this year and they will be back there next year.

HackMiami 2016 Conference

The 2016 HackMiami Conference will be coming up in a few months on May 13-15.  This will be the fourth time for this annual conference.  Been to every one and plan on attending again as I will be speaking (for the second time).

A change for this year is they have a new venue:  Miami Beach Deauville Beach Resort.  I think they had some problems with the prior location.  Hopefully things will be better with this one.

They have announced their keynote speakers, and John McAfee is returning as an announced speaker.  (last year he was a surprise keynote speaker).  This year's general theme is a return to the start of the hacker/cracker culture.  They are still taking proposals, so don't yet know what will be the speakers and tracks.  There will again be the lockpick village and "capture the flag" event as before, and training on the first day.

If you are in Florida, check out this conference.  It's a lot of fun.

SFISSA's 2015 Anniversary Party/Hack the Flag event

The South Florida Chapter of ISSA is celebrating their 15th Anniversary this year.

Every year an event they put on is the Hack the Flag/Chili Cookoff.  At this event, they usually have 2 "hack the flag" events, one for beginners and another advanced.  The advanced game had been done by our local friends at Kommand && KonTroll CTF (part of HackMiami).

Upcoming Information Security Events (& Organizations) in the South Florida area

As an information security professional, it's important to stay up on the latest trends.  One great way of doing so is to attend conference and meetings and learn from your peers thru the presentations, panel discussions and just networking and chatting.

Here in the South Florida area (Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beaches) there are several opportunities for such, but sadly, too many don't take advantage of them.  Here are some to keep in mind for the coming year.

HackMiami 2015 Conference

This May, HackMiami will be having their 2015 conference, their third, again in Miami Beach.

I've been to each one, and I will be presenting at this year's conference.  Each conference has gotten better, so even if I wasn't presenting I'd look forward to it.

If you are in the South Florida area, you should try to attend.  This is a great conference, and while more "hackerish", it's one that anyone involved with InfoSecurity should check out.

I'll publish a report on the conference afterwards.

Media attention for HackMiami's conference

I had prior posting on the recent HackMiami conference here in the South Florida area.

They have gotten some media attention for their conference, in particular for one of their panel discussions on the growing "cryptocurrencies" such as Bitcoin and the like.  You can read the article HERE at Financial Tech Spotlight.  I had attended this panel, and thought it was pretty good.

HackMiami 2013 Conference Report

This past weekend (May 17-19), the hacker group in my local area HackMiami had their first conference, HackMiami 2013 and I attended.  While not a member of the group, I have heard of them, and we've had them help out with some of our South Florida ISSA events.  This is not an underground group.  Most of the members actually work with/for many local IT security companies.

This was a hacker conference, which is a little different from a traditional IT Security conference.  Some of the stuff done is a bit out there, there is expectation that the audience is more technical, and some sessions were more hands on then in most Security conferences.

HackMiami 2013 Conference this weekend

This weekend (May 17-19), local hacker group HackMiami is having their first conference, Hack Miami 2013.   While not a member of the group, I have heard of them, and we've had them help out with some of our South Florida ISSA events.

Overall, the conference looks pretty good.  They've organized 3 tracks, "old headz", "new headz", and "moral headz", so there should be a good mix of sessions to attend.

Seeing as how Hacker Halted USA isn't coming back to Miami this year (they're going to Atlanta this year), this may be the only major IT Security conference in the South Florida area.

Next week I'll post my comments on the event.