How to Survive in the Cyberspace? PHDays IV: Searching for a New Formula

The international forum on practical security Positive Hack Days IV will take place on May 21 and 22, 2014 in the Digital October Center. We have already started preparing for the forum that held leading positions in ratings, received rewards and heard many encouraging words from information security professionals.

A lot of reports and hands-on labs from leading IS experts, as well as professional discussion, realistic contests are in store for the guests and participants of PHDays. The concept hasn't changed: maximum experience, minimum ceremonies, no advertising materials or promotion.

PHDays IV is devoted to new problems that arose before business, government and individuals as a result of the rapid development of science and technology. "For thousands of years people have been creating security mechanisms to counter various threats: they built fences, designed door locks, set up a police system. However, nowadays people resemble an infant that was left in the jungle. Figuratively speaking, there are lions, tigers, even dinosaurs all around. And we are just innocent children walking around without any proper weapon to protect ourselves," says Boris Simis, Deputy CEO at Positive Technologies.

Possible plots of civilization development

The PHDays organizers are going to discuss problems that lie beyond technological issues. What technologies can be used for surveillance and anonymizing? Where is the line between a citizen’s privacy and a state’s right of self-defense? What is the immediate forecast on discovering new vulnerabilities? What are the trends in ICSes, mobile devices and the Internet?

Sergey Gordeychik: "Now we are living in the world of cyberpunk victorious, States, corporations and criminal gangs are waging undeclared war. Computer viruses easily pass the borders of cyberworld and cause real physical damage. Billions of people cannot imagine their lives without Internet connection. The amount of world’s information is doubling every few years. Organizing new Positive Hack Days, we would like the representative of state, business, industry, and hacking society get together in a single venue and try to find new ways of survival in the cyberspace."

How to apply as a speaker 

Specialists in information security who are willing to share the results of your research or to demonstrate your skills in practical information security can apply though PHDays IV Call For Papers, which was started on November 25.

Anyone from a novice to a recognized expert in information security can apply for participation. Find the details about the format and participation rules, the list of topics we are mostly interested in as well as application submission instructions on the PHDays website.

How it was

It's worth reminding that during its existence, the forum has been attended by Bruce Schneier, a well-known cryptography expert, Datuk Mohd Noor Amin (United Nations), Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and a member of the State Council, Travis Goodspeed, an engineer and radio amateur, Ruslan Gattarov, a representative of the Federation Council, Tao Wan, the founder of China Eagle Union, Georgy Gritsay from the Ministry for Communications, Nick Galbreath, the vice president of Engineering at IPONWEB, Mushtaq Ahmed from Emirates Airline, Vitaly Lyutikov (FSTEC), Marc Heuse, a researcher and developer also known as van Hauser and others.

Leading experts in information security, hackers, researchers, bloggers, journalists, students from Germany, India, Spain, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, UAE, USA, Japan and other countries visited PHDays III last year. Among the participants were representatives of the Ministry of the Interior, FSB, the Investigative Committee, as well as of VimpelCom, Megafon, RusHydro and RSA. PHDays program included more than 50 reports, hands-on labs, sections, and round tables. Tens of thousands people watched the forum online and participated in the contests via PHDays Everywhere.

More than 2,000 of visitors from every corner of the world were gathered in the congress center located on Krasnopresnenskaya Naberezhnaya in Moscow to watch hackers breaking ATMs, stealing money from remote banking systems, taking control over ICS of a railroad. PHDays III CTF contests resembled a video game with nonlinear gameplay and real-life vulnerabilities. Moreover, during the process of detecting defects in security systems of the Labyrinth, a participant could feel himself being a part of a spy film while getting over motion detectors and other traps.

The forum speakers demonstrated the most dangerous vulnerabilities in ICS components, dashcams security flaws, defects in hundreds of thousands of surveillance cameras all over the word, security problems of ATMs and the Internet access systems used on planes.Specialists paid close attention to Positive Hack Days III. The forum also had broad resonance in IT community. You can take a look at the PHDays III movie we made: