PHDays a la Tunisia

Participation in Positive Hack Days 2012, an information security forum, was available not only in the Digital October Center and by means of online broadcasting. Dozens of hackspaces all over the world joined our program PHDays Everywhere providing local hackers with an opportunity to watch the forum, partake in the competitions, and interact with their colleagues gathered in Moscow.

National Institute of Applied Science and Technology (INSAT) became such a hackspace in Tunisia, which was open mostly for students, members of an IS club named SecuriNets and Information Security Professional Association (APSIT). A spot report is under the cut.

The members of SecuriNets, the first information security club in Tunisia founded in 2004, were in charge of the event organization, including welcoming and registering participants, preparing a conference room, tuning video and audio equipment.

Friendly atmosphere joined IS specialists at PHDays Tunisia for discussing topical information security issues and new recommendations on enhancing cyber information security in Tunisia.

PHDays in Tunisia began a little bit later due to the time shift, but when Moscow connected and the audience started watching what was going on on the main platform of the forum, Tunisian IS experts were in the seventh heaven of joy. A particular interest was paid to the CTF area, where the local team ForbiddenBits had already been battling with their competitors.

However, the CTF hackers were not the only ones, who represented Tunisia in so distant Moscow. Haythem El Mir, an information security expert from Tunis, provided a report on the way his country resisted attacks by Anonymous. The audience in Tunisia looked forward to watching this presentation and was very proud of their compatriot – Tunisian specialists are rare visitors of such big conferences.

PHDays Everywhere made it possible for professionals and students from Tunisia to interact with foreign colleagues, discuss the most urgent information security issues, and enlarge their knowledge. As a result quite a lot was done for IS development in a particular country.

The members of ForbiddenBits were satisfied as well. According to Marwen, the team coordinator, they really enjoyed the forum's atmosphere and communication with other hackers, as well as the CTF tasks, which were difficult but interesting. The team have not taken any winning places this year, but they intend to return to Moscow next year and strive for victory. Next PHDays forum is promising to become an important event for IS community not only in Russia and Europe but in Tunisia as well.

We express our gratitude to Haythem El Mir, the information security expert from Tunisia and reporter at PHDays 2012, for assistance in material preparation.