Here is a taste of some of the sort of things we chatted about this month - our version of the Chatham House Rule applies, so nobody is directly identified, in order to promote open communication, even on controversial, sensitive or potentially illegal topics.
This is not a substitute for coming along to the meetings in person: - remember that everyone is welcome, no matter your age or experience or skills (or lack of them), from both sides of the legal fence.
- Travel plans for attending Hacking At Random Vierhouten, Netherlands - Thursday 13th to Sunday 16th August 2009
- Discussing a security report for Chatham House, under the Chatham House Rule
- Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome and Pleonasm e.g.
- PIN number - Personal Identification Number number
- SAM missile - Surface to Air Missile missile
- CSS style sheet -Cascading Style Sheet style sheet
- PAT testing - Portable Appliance Testing testing
- AC current - Alternating Current current
- RAM memory - Random Access Memory memory
- FTP protocol - File Transfer Protocol protocol
- G20 demonstrations - fake media and police set pieces, arrests of "anarchists" . Why were the windows at the Royal Bank of Scotland the only ones in the area which had not been boarded up ?
Possibilities for insider fraudsters to steal credentials, get access to PCs or terminals belonging to co-workers or their managers etc. whilst everyone else's attention was diverted, looking out of the windows onto the demonstrations in the City of London.
- Rat's motorbike and robocop style body armour and security modifications
- Careers in Penetration testing - cover your backside legally first.
- The chilling effect of the UK Computer Misuse Act on the University of Cambridge Computer Security Group's investigations into the "Chinese" Ghostnet and into the trojan malware targeted at the Tibetan government in exile. They had to leave full examination of the Ghostnet botnet to their colleagues in Canada.
- Is Huawei really more of a risk to BT / UK telecomms infrastructure than Cisco or Ericsson or Alcatel ? See this Spy Blog article and comments for further links.
- Being harassed for (legally) taking photos in public places.
- TrueCrypt encryption software.
- Tor exit node risk evaluation. Do not be antisocial and try to download BitTorrents via Tor !
- Cisco routers in, say, Nigeria, with the password(s) set to "cisco"