Session: What the hack? Fortifying your security by understanding your adversary

Date: Friday, July 13, 2018
Time: 10:30 - 11:15 am (CDT) (UTC-05:00)
Location: Simon Hall 122
Format: General Lecture Session

Session description

Malicious activity is an unfortunate reality when maintaining a web presence today. Most people involved in the web industry know someone who encountered the aftermath of a disruptive attack -- if they haven't themselves. Because of this, awareness of security best practices is at an all-time high. To many, though, it may not be clear exactly why these measures are important.

To remedy that, we'll be taking a practical look at what's actually happening when a website gets attacked, as well as discussing the hows and whys along the way. From understanding why small sites still get hacked, to why password reuse is really as bad as everyone says, we'll explore the rationale behind the security principles you're always being told to follow.

Presenter

Mikey Veenstra

Headshot of Mikey Veenstra
Threat Analyst, Wordfence

Mikey is a researcher, writer, and speaker who specializes in malware identification and taxonomy. He is passionate about information security, data privacy, and the open source community. He holds a GWAPT certification and is a member of the GIAC Advisory Board.

As a Threat Analyst at Defiant, Michael analyzes threat intelligence in order to provide up-to-date malware signatures and firewall rules to Wordfence users worldwide.

Outside of his work he enjoys tabletop gaming and cooking, and dreams of starting a nonprofit to make DFIR more accessible to charities.

Sessions

  • General Lecture Session: What the hack? Fortifying your security by understanding your adversary

Session video