July 14, 2016
Last month saw an important anniversary for Edward Snowden. In June 2013, he broke the biggest state surveillance scandal in history. Where has it left us three years on, and what have we learned? Snowden left the country that May without telling anyone where he was going. A little later he was in Hong Kong, […]
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July 12, 2016
The commercial Internet has always been a diverse dangerous neighbourhood, with its fair share of malicious actors and dangerous characters. In recent years, though, it has gained a new voice – an anti-western version of the jihadi movement. To vast numbers of peaceful muslims, jihad means ‘exerted effort’ and can be interpreted simply as a […]
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June 28, 2016
What would happen if cryptography stopped working tomorrow? For one thing, the Internet would effectively stop working. Signed software updates would no longer be possible. No one would be able to prove their identities online. A trustless Internet makes it hard to exchange any kind of sensitive information, which is where much of the value […]
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June 17, 2016
That Internet-connected Barbie that listens to your kid is hackable. Your ex could stalk you in your car even if it wasn’t designed to be a connected vehicle, and someone could alter your medical dose remotely while you’re in hospital. No wonder the NSA is both excited by IoT and worried about it, in equal measure. […]
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June 11, 2016
John Seymour believes that machines can do a better job of classifying an ocean of malware – if we can just teach them properly. Seymour, a data scientist at social media threat intelligence firm ZeroFOX, wants to turn computers into sorting tools that can help antivirus researchers. He has devoted his PHD studies to the […]
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June 3, 2016
Calling all security pros and IT managers bogged down by compliance and governance paperwork: Toronto-based cybersecurity expert Ben Sapiro wants to make your job easier. And this year at SecTor 2016, he’ll unveil a tool that will help. Sapiro, a long-time SecTor speaker, first appeared in 2007 with a data-driven talk describing how threats were evolving. […]
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May 31, 2016
It is sixty years since scientists gathered for their historical meeting about artificial intelligence at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. It was a month-long brainstorming session during which scientists they explored the possibilities of thinking computers, and it kick-started a field of research that we’re still benefiting from today. AI is revolutionizing areas ranging from […]
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May 25, 2016
For a person who just found the personal details for most of the adult Mexican population sitting in a publicly accessible database, Chris Vickery is remarkably self-effacing. His security research is mostly part-time, he’s entirely self-taught, and his days are spent wrangling the IT at a local law firm. He downplays his out-of-hours security work, […]
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May 17, 2016
In a few decades, your computers may be mostly bug-free because programmers won’t be writing your code, according to Mikko Hyponnen. The chief research officer for F-Secure always has something controversial to say, which is why Black Arts Illuminated has bought him back as a keynote for SecTor 2016, which marks the security conference’s tenth year. Today, […]
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May 11, 2016
It’s been ten years since SecTor first began. The conference launched as a no-nonsense, fact-filled event designed to help security professionals protect themselves against attack. The organizers created it because Canada needed it back then, and we clearly still need it now. The last ten years have been filled with hacks, and the number of stolen records […]
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April 20, 2016
Mathematical algorithms might be able to predict exactly how your network will act. Is it possible to prove, beyond all shadow of a doubt, that your network is secure? SecTor has talked about how security alerts are becoming more probabilistic. This week, we’re looking at an effort to do the opposite, by turning probabilistic estimates of security […]
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