Security B-Sides speaker list promises ‘left field’

The organisers of London’s forthcoming Security B-Sides conference have announced a speaker line-up that promises to serve up a slice of the event’s free-thinking approach to security themes.

Attendees will be able to chose from 19 sessions, including Jedi mind tricks for building application security programs by David Rook and Chris Wysopal (AKA ‘Security Ninja’ and ‘Weld Pond’), Cloud computing due diligence – WTF by Jimmy Blake, How not to get hired for a security job by Stephen Bonner, and Social Media and security: Are they compatible?, a keynote by noted Internet expert, Dr Paul Q. Judge.

Some of the names are well known, others less so, but the sessions are always designed say the organisers to be free of the business, management and technology jargon that plagues analyst and vendor events.

Other sessions will cover issues such as Android reverse-engineering, the failures of the online authentication ‘revolution’, and why network penetration testing ‘must die’.

“Security B-Sides has quickly gained a reputation as being a meaningful conference and is respected as it gives security professionals an open platform to discuss important issues within the information security industry”, said Dr Paul Q. Judge, now chief research officer at Barracuda Networks.

Despite its alternative ‘speak your mind’ outlook and volunteer ethos a striking element is how many names have a security vendor connection, which raises the interesting question of why they are choosing to devote time to the would-be cultish Security B-Sides event when a larger show is being held across town on the same day, Infosecurity Europe.

The answer could be that people’s taste in security shows is shifting, but also that the speakers and companies that see value in them are also experiencing cultural change. A few years ago, companies would have sent marketing managers with the right job title. Nowadays, that person is more likely to be a security blogger with a good social media profile and a direct line to ‘influencers’ such as journalists.

Security B-Sides London will be held on 20 April at the Skills Matter eXchange in Clerkenwell.

The full session list can be seen on the Security B-Sides website. While the event is free to attend the bad news is that the attendance list is now full.