During the month of July 2018, I had the absolute pleasure to both attend and present at one of the very best, well organised events I have ever been involved with – the ISMG Cyber Security Summit, which was held in São Paulo, Brasil.
Image 1 – Round Table – Prof J Walker
This is only the second such Cyber Summit to take place in a region who are clearly serious about their own, and the state of global cyber defences. Attended by around 250 plus delegates, drawn from the Commercial Sector of the wider South American regions, through to representation from the Brasilian Army, Navy, and Air Force, SANS, and Academics from the University of Zurich – this was clearly an occasion which had invoked interest from the highest level of the SA Commercial, Military, and the wider Global Security related communities.
Fig 2 – Brasilian Navy contingent
When it came to the speaker line up, this was equally impressive with an opening Keynote presentation from a Colonel from the Brasilian Army, followed by the FBI, both of which set the scene of the dangers our hyper-connected world of our day. In fact, throughout the two days, there was a strong interconnected, yet diverse theme ranging from high level presentations on the Legal and Management aspects of Cyber, which then dug deeper on day two looking into the complexities of Blockchain as a DDoS defence, breaking out of Virtual Machines, the art of Threat Hunting using the basic components of Microsoft and other such O/S provided tools and applications, Digital Forensics, and the benefits of Open Sourece Intelligence, along with many other refreshing and leading edge, high quality topics.
Fig 3 – University of Zurich – Special Build Blockchain Defecne
What made this event so very special was the overall vibrance – when you can get a room full of delegates on a hot Saturday for eight hours, I believe this is a testimony to the high quality of the topics, along with the overall thirst for information on the topic of Cyber Security.
Given the this is an infant event which has only run in this region twice, the Cyber Security Summit for 2019 is already in the planning phase, and if I am lucky, I may just get another invite to attend or event present.
In conclusion, three comments are noteworthy here. One is, this is the only event I have every attended in over 30 years at which I attended every single session. However, and the most important area of all is, it is refreshing to work with a nation who are taking Cyber Security so very seriously, with a clear demonstration of the Brasil Mission to plan and delivery robust defences to their hyper-connected world. My closing comment must be a mention in dispatches for Rafael Narezzi who was the hands-on driver behind this excellent event – and long may it continue.
John is the Principle at Shadow-Intelligence (Si), partnering with PALISCOPE, BreachAware and iStorage. He is a Visiting Professor at the School of Science and Technology, Nottingham, Trent University (NTU) and holds the appointment of Editor in Chief for the International Journal of Cyber Forensics and Advanced Threat Investigations (CFATI). For the last decade he has delivered training courses in the Middle, and Far East to Commercial, Industrial, the Financial Services Sector, and Military Agencies, including the UAE, US, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia (KL), Singapore, Argentina, and Sao Paulo
He served in the Royal Air Force 22 years’, specialising in Counterintelligence, working with UK Agencies such as GCHQ/CESG, and others in the fields of SIGINT, COMINT and Satellite Communications, holding appointments such as System ITSO for a CIA SCIF.
In the commercials sectors of IT/Cyber he has worked for/with Logica, Bae, T5, GM, Experian, Betfair, Palace of Westminster, House of Lords/Commons, TSol (Treasury Solicitors) and provided Consultancy to the Saudi Arabian MOD, TRA (Telecommunications Authority (Dubai) and the Military Academy of Malaysia (KL) on SOC, CSIRT, Digital Forensics and OSINT. Within the last 5 years he has focused on Geopolitics, with global expertise around the UAE and Russia, Anti-Terrorist Operations (ATO), Cyber-Warfare, Dezinformatsiya (Disinformation) and Maskirovka (Military Deception).
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