Security BSides Amsterdam 2017

My passion for contributing to the information security community as much as possible, led me into getting myself involved with the formation of another information security conference. After a number of discussions, I decided to help out with putting together a Security BSides conference in the Netherlands. More specifically, the first ever Security BSides Amsterdam 2017 (www.bsidesams.nl) took place on Friday, 1/Sep/2017 in the heart of Amsterdam, at Zalen Pakhuis de Zwijger B.V. (dezwijger.nl). 

We tried to engage the Dutch information security community as much as possible as this was  our first attempt to make this conference a reality. We were very pleased to have so many speakers submitting a talk to the conference, and the support of OWASP and especially OWASP Netherlands. 

On our account on peerlyst you will find a list of all the talks of the day, along with their respective YouTube video. 

You can also find all of the videos on our YouTube channel, all combined in one playlist here. 

Security BSides Athens 2017

This was the second Security BSides Athens in Greece this year, which allowed us to move to a slightly bigger venue. We tried to put together a better event since last year and further improve the quality of the conference.

Security BSides Athens 2017 (www.bsidesath.gr) took place at "The Athinais Cultural Center" - ATHINAIS

OWASP London chapter meeting (Guest Speaker)

It is a great honour to have been invited to speak at the OWASP London Chapter meeting this May. (Thursday, 18 May 2017 - Central London)
More importantly, as this meeting is sponsored by WorldPay, it is a fantastic opportunity to share previous work I have done on payment systems over the past few years.   

Allow me to say a big Thank You to the OWASP London Chapter organisers for the work they put in to keep the London chapter so live & active, and of course to WorldPay, for supporting this meeting, and for being so kind to host it at their premises. If you are interested to find out more OWASP, make sure you attend the OWASP Summit 2017.

Given the opportunity for this blog-post, I would also like to thank you all for your messages about my talk. I am very pleased to hear that the tickets for OWASP London Chapter meeting this month were sold-out that fast and that the organisers had to activate the waiting list. The organisers also mentioned that due to the high demand, they will consider live streaming. So, stay tuned for updates on that as I am planning to schedule a number of tweets to go out before and during the talk. Thus, for updates you can follow me on Twitter: @drgfragkos

30 days to go for the OWASP Summit 2017

Owasp will host its 2017 Global Summit in London where hundreds of participants will join forces in Working Sessions focused on solving hard Application and Cyber Security problems.

This is not a conference with unidirectional presentations. Using the same model as the past two OWASP Summits in Portugal, this 5-day event will be a high-energy experience, during which attendees get the chance to work and collaborate intensively. Every thoroughly prepared working session is geared towards a specific application security challenge and will be focused on actionable outcomes.

With participants flying from all over the world and from major security/development teams, service/product providers and research organizations, this is the place to be to learn and collaborate with industry peers (and even competitors).

The event is split over the following tracks, each focusing on a specific set of challenges:

• Threat Modeling - This is one of the strongest tracks, with most of the core Threat Modeling talent in the world joining forces and collaborating
• OwaspSAMM - This is another track where we have the main contributors and users of this Owasp project participating at the Summit
• DevSecOps - This track has been generating quite a buzz among participants, since it is addressing real pain points and problems that companies face today
• Education - Always strong in OWASP, this track ranges from University master degree to how to create the next generation of AppSec professionals
• Mobile Security - Another track where the key Owasp leaders of Mobile-related Owasp projects are participating
• CISO - This track reaches a wide audience of CISOs and covers a wide range of CISO-related topics
• Research - This track covers really important and interesting research topics (it’s important to look at the future and work on the next generation of Application Security)
• Agile AppSec - This is a track driven by a couple participants who really care about Agile and want to find better ways to integrate it with AppSec practices
• Security Crowdsourcing - This is a track that is focused on scaling AppSec activities via internal and external crowdsourcing
• Owasp Project’s Summit - Last but not least, this track has 31x Working Sessions directly related to an Owasp Project (with most having the Project Leader participating)

Ransomware outbreak at a global scale | #wannacry

Approximately 74 countries are currently under an ongoing cyber-attack. The NHS in the UK has been massively affected, along with major companies worldwide. 

Computer systems are being infected with the ransomware known as WanaCrypt0r 2.0 (known as WCry and WannaCry). The malicious file targets a known computer vulnerability (MS17-010). 

System Administrators:
- Ensure systems are fully patched, especially by addressing the MS17-010 vulnerability. 
- Disable SMBv1.
- Firewall protect ports: 139/445 & 3389
- Make sure you have a backup of your data and it is also stored offline. 
- Ensure Antivirus is installed and active.

Legacy systems should be isolated and any systems which are infected, consider removing them from the network. 

Under Attack?

• Customers in the healthcare sector should follow the national guidance as instructed by the NHS and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
• UK customers consult the Cyber Information Sharing Platform (CiSP).
• DeepRecce customers requiring further advice or information should contact our 24/7 incident response line www.deeprecce.com

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Repository of information:

WannaCry|WannaDecrypt0r NSA-Cybereweapon-Powered Ransomware Worm
https://gist.github.com/pcostesi/87a04a3bbbdbc4aeb8b787f45eb21197 

Microsoft released notes:
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/mmpc/2017/05/12/wannacrypt-ransomware-worm-targets-out-of-date-systems/