We caught up with the UKSTAR Programme Committee to hear their views on the upcoming UKSTAR conference. Here’s what they they had to say…
James Lyndsay
Dorothy Graham
I am very excited about UKSTAR, and, no, it’s nothing to do with Brexit! We have a great line-up of speakers, with lots of interesting topics, from many different countries, talking about a great variety of topics. We hope that everyone will find some “must-see” presentations in our programme. I am particularly looking forward to our new type of track – the “Conversations”. These are two people talking for 15 mins about a similar thing or with slightly different experiences, who will approach the topic from different perspectives, followed by 30 mins of general discussion – so bring your questions and discussion points and join in the Conversations.
Declan O’Riordan
When I heard Ken Munro speaking at a security conference recently I felt a shiver run down my spine. As one of the world’s best penetration testers, he provided a perspective on the Internet of Things (IoT) security vulnerabilities. Ken showed the means to establish control of the devices commonly on sale to you and me. More than a demonstration, it was a prophetic vision of how our infrastructure will be increasingly disrupted through mass-takeover of domestic appliances. A few weeks later, on 21st October 2016, the technique he described was used for the first time in a huge Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on the USA’s internet services. Having Ken Munro speak at EuroSTAR builds an important bridge between Testing and IoT security. His talk is just one example of the amazing new material to be heard at UKSTAR. Every session will open your mind to important ideas.
I’m very excited about my workshop “Hey! What just Hackened?” but disappointed I’ll have to miss the three other simultaneous workshops by Dot Graham, James Lyndsay, and the larger-than-life James Whittaker! If we hadn’t made the conference theme ‘Bridges over Barriers’ we could have called it ’Spoiled for choices’!