What happens when many high quality information security speakers don’t get a chance to speak at the BlackHat Briefings Conference in Las Vegas? You make a new, more inclusive conference! BSides is a template conference design powered by grassroots organizers, has spread to dozens of cities in several countries, and it is New Orleans’ turn this spring. The community of researchers, academics, and professionals who attend, organize, and speak at these nonprofit conferences customize the atmosphere and dialogue in each city, but the sense of collaboration exists at each location. Intimate educational talks are the start of quality networking and interaction between participants and speakers and BSIdes NOLA 2014 is seeking exceptional speakers.
The inaugural BSides NOLA Security Conference was held the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend this year. Featuring 18 speakers across 3 tracks and including a fire talk, over 130 participants and speakers talked, learned, and networked their way through a pretty fun day filled with forensics, information security, and beer (Hey, it’s New Orleans after all). Recognizing the fact that technology changes at an ever increasing rate, we pride ourselves on attracting industry peers who are focused on staying ahead of the curve. Our talks included war stories from the front lines of technology security – your computer isn’t the only electronic device at risk! – and real world examples and applications of our abilities to find new and creative ways to stay secure. Our guests come from all over the country, but you don’t have to be an industry professional to attend. We encourage anyone interested in learning more about these topics to join the conversation.
The second annual BSides NOLA conference will be held on Saturday May 17, 2014 at the same location, the Hilton Garden Inn Convention Center at 1001 South Peters Street. It is another all day event featuring an impressive array of speakers, however, this time we will feature only two tracks of speakers. Our call for papers (CFP) is currently open and will close February 1, 2014.We expect our speaker pool to be highly competitive. If you believe you have a talk to give of conference caliber and based on a relevant topic, please submit the CFP form on the BSides NOLA wiki: http://www.securitybsides.com/
For those interested in learning more about incident response, digital forensics, malware analysis, enterprise security, or many other topics concerning digital and information security we encourage you to go to our Eventbrite page, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
By: Diana Hellickson, 504ensics.com.