Panel

INTRODUCTION

The Ruxcon panel discussion returns once again and is ready to ignite conversation on issues that have popped up during the past year. This year we are focusing on topics that have been covered by the technology and mainstream media, and it will be up to our esteemed panel of experts and commentators to separate fact from fiction and offer insight into what can be complex issues. As always, our panel consists of passionate experts from the entire spectrum of the computer security universe.

The panel is held as an informal discussion between our experts. Special guest speakers may pop in and out of the panel and they will be able to provide their own specific insight into the discussion at hand. Delegates are invited to use the questions we've given to our panel members as a starting point and contribute to the panel by asking questions throughout the session.

Panel Host: Suelette Dreyfus

PANEL TOPICS

GUESTS

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DR SUELETTE DREYFUS

Journalist and Security Researcher University of Melbourne

Panel Host Suelette Dreyfus is a security researcher and lecturer in the School of Computer and Information Systems at The University of Melbourne. She’s well known in the Melbourne scene for having co-authored ‘Underground’ with Julian Assange, the first mainstream book about hacking in Australia. It has been translated into 7 languages, made into 3 films and had more than 1 million copies downloaded for free. One of her favourite projects is helping journalists protect themselves and their sources. She has degrees from Monash and Columbia Universities.

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SCOTT LUDLAM

Australian Greens Party

First elected to the Australian Senate in 2007, Scott became the fifth Greens Senator to represent Western Australia. He quickly became a shining light in Autralian politics to many in the IT industry. He came from this world, where he worked as a web developer, graphic designer and illustrator. During his decade as a senator, Scott has campaigned tirelessly for sensible and pragmatic approaches by government to IT issues and policies. He was a leading voice against the Federal Government's attempt to introduce a mandatory net filter, followed by a six year campaign against mandatory data retention. He won amendments to better secure public ownership of the National Broadband Network and has been a strong advocate for a diverse, accessible communications sector that doesn’t involve real-time mass surveillance of users. In July this year, he discovered that he was actually a dual citizen of Australian and New Zealand, making him ineligible to remain in office. He resigned from his role as Deputy Leader of the Greens and as Senator for WA. Ruxcon is very pleased to have Scott Ludlam back on our Panel again.

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VITALY KAMLUK

Principal Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab

Vitaly is Principal Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab. He has been working in malware analysis, vulnerability research and cyberattack investigations with Kaspersky Lab for over a decade. He also spent 2 years working as cybersecurity expert at INTERPOL. Vitaly is based in Singapore and is responsible for a team of regional security researchers. He has presented in the past at various recognized security conferences, including Blackhat US and Asia, Defcon, HITCON, PHDays, BSides LV, Source Boston, ZeroNights, HackInTheBox, FIRST as well as many other smaller and closed door events. Vitaly is the author of free open-source tool called Bitscout, developed for digital forensic analysts, the first open source solution released by Kaspersky Lab.

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JAMES FORSHAW

Security Researcher in Google’s Project Zero

James is a security researcher in Google’s Project Zero. He has been involved with computer hardware and software security for over 10 years looking at a range of different platforms and applications. With a great interest in logical vulnerabilities he’s been listed as the #1 researcher for MSRC, as well as being a Pwn2Own and Microsoft Mitigation Bypass bounty winner. He has spoken at a number of security conferences including Black Hat USA, CanSecWest, Bluehat, HITB, and Infiltrate.

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VANESSA TEAGUE

Senior Lecturer In Computing at University of Melbourne

A world expert in the security risks of e-voting, Vanessa has a PhD in cryptography and game theory from Stanford University. Electoral commissions rushing headlong into internet voting tangle with Vanessa at their peril. One of them usually comes out with an eggy face - and its not Vanessa. Her interest is in cryptographic protocols that support a free and democratic society. She was a member of the team that identified cryptographic weaknesses in the 10% MBS/PBS longitudinal dataset in September 2016.

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TIM WELLSMORE

Director of Threat Intelligence, Asia Pacific

Tim Wellsmore is a Director of Threat Intelligence for Asia Pacific and coordinates FireEye's Global Threat Operations across the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific. He’s been busy expanding FireEye Intelligence capabilities in: sensors, human intelligence and incident response. Before globetrotting Asia, he worked at the Australian Cyber Security Centre, and for a more than a decade at the Australian Crime Commission in Intelligence areas. He’s a big fan of expanded government surveillance powers so will give us healthy debate on this topic on our panel this year.