SecureWorld Day 1 Review

Well, the night is dying down and I got a few minutes to blog about the security conference in Seattle.

I won't go into to much detail as I am pretty tired (Beau Monday and I went out last night to try a bunch of different beers at "The TapHouse Bar and Grill"), and when I got back to the hotel I just couldn't sleep)

Here is a quick review of the day:

• Whit Diffie gave an excellent keynote providing a synopsis of the evolution of information security and its problems. I always enjoy listening to him talk
  
• The panels on patch management and vulnerability assessment were boring. When everyone agrees and is doing vendor plugs... you do nothing to have an intelligent conversation on the subjects
  
• Francis D'Addario, the VP Partner & Asset Protection for Starbucks gave an EXCELLENT lunch keynote on how Starbucks handles risk management. From terrorist threats (risk of smuggling WMD in coffee bean crates) to social responsibility, this was the first presentation in a long time where I can honestly say I heard a infosec pro thinking like a businessman first, and a technologist second. I can't put in words how much I enjoyed his fresh perspective.
  
• I have to remember some people only can think of you in an online context. I spend time regularly communicating with Crispan Cowan on mailing lists and email, but he couldn't remember me from the hole in the ground when I saw him on the trade floor. Kinda funny actually. He is speaking tomorrow and it should be pretty good.
  
• Not much new coming out of vendors. The exhibit hall has lots of neat products, but nothing with an ohhh-ahhhh factor.

After the conference Beau and I attended a party gala hosted by Network Computing Architects which was fun. Met up with some interesting people and made some good contacts for some future projects. Thanks to Tom (NCA CEO) for the hospitality and beer. :)

While thanks go out, I should also thank Beau for showing me the town, and taking me to the Geek Dinner Robert put together on short notice. Even with only a couple of hours of real notice, I would like to thank the 10 or so people that came out to say hi. I appreciate it. Was great fun.

Ended the evening spending some time checking out J.P Stuart's car, which is a Jeep Cherokee tricked out with Windows XP, GPS, bluetooth and wireless. Pretty neat layout. He put a lot of effort into this thing.

I have a few comments on some interesting two factor authentication I saw at the show, but I will discuss in its own post when I get back to the office.

For now I am gonna sign off and get some sleep before the 7:30 breakfast help by the ISSA. TTYL.

Posted by SilverStr at October 26, 2004 10:40 PM | TrackBack