[ISN] World-renowned hackers gathering in Malaysia

[InfoSec News]

http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2004/8/27/technology/8772532&sec=technology

August 27, 2004

KUALA LUMPUR: More than 20 world-renowned hackers -- not crackers -- 
will congregate here at the Third Annual Hack In The Box Security 
Conference (HITBSecConf2004) from Oct 4-7. 

In hacker counter-culture parlance, "crackers" are those who hack into 
computer systems for malicious reasons, while hackers specialise in 
testing networks to drive the development of intrusion 
countermeasures. 

The hackers attending Malaysia's first non-profit homegrown hacking 
and network security conference will come from Australia, Canada, 
Europe, the United States and the Asia Pacific region, conference 
organiser Hack In The Box (M) Sdn Bhd said in a statement. 

HITBSecConf2004 (http://conference.hackinthebox.org) will feature two 
very prominent keynote speakers: Theo De Raadt and John T. Draper. 

Draper, also known as "Captain Crunch," was one of the original 
members of the Homebrew Computer Club, and has over 30 years of 
programming and security expertise. 

Widely known as an information systems security pioneer, he is 
credited with introducing, among others, Apple Computer Inc cofounders 
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to the computing world, and a generation 
of hackers to the concept of "phone phreaking." 

His work with Jobs and Wozniak led him to become the 13th employee of 
Apple Computer, where he designed telephone interface boards, as well 
as hardware and software for the Apple II personal computer. 

De Raadt, who will be presenting a paper entitled Exploit Mitigation 
Techniques, has been involved with free Unix operating systems since 
1990, and was one of the founders and prime developers of NetBSD. 

In 1995 he created the OpenBSD project, developing a free version of 
Unix that focused primarily on security. 

"We are truly honoured that some of the greatest minds of the network 
security and computer industry have chosen to present their research 
papers at our event," said Dhillon Andrew Kannabhiran, founder and 
chief executive officer of Hack In The Box. 

"As with last year's conference, attendees will get a look at some of 
the latest attack and defence methods, including new and previously 
unpublished exploits," he added. 

The main aim of HITBSecConf2004 is to enable the dissemination, 
discussion and sharing of network security information, presented by 
respected members of the mainstream network security arena, as well as 
the underground or "BlackHat" community. 

Building on the success of the last two annual conferences, this 
year's event has been extended to cover four days, kicking off on Oct 
4 with a two-day hands-on technical training session, followed by the 
conference proper. 

There will also be a "Capture The Flag" live hacking competition on 
Oct 6 and 7. 

"This is truly a golden opportunity for local network security vendors 
as well as members of the computer industry to come forward and gain 
first-hand knowledge of the latest threats and attacks facing 
organisations," said Kannabhiran.