Day 2 at SecureWorld was much the same yet quiet different. It started off with a Atlanta InfraGard Chapter meeting. There was a report on "Emerging Threats" by an FBI analysts that was pretty good and then followed by a Panel discussion (I missed the topic) that never was. What I mean by that is that each of the panelists talked a little about who they are and what they do. Then the moderator asked if there were any questions. A lady asked a question about SMB security and the moderator opened it up to allow the audience to give input. That pretty much took the rest of the time. I never did find out what the topic of the panel was because the panel was never given the chance to talk.
The morning Keynote was by far the highlight of the conference. The speaker was Johnny Long talking about his No Tech Hacking. Not only was it informative but it was also enjoyable. I'm going to talk more about this in a separate post.
After Johnny's Keynote I attended a talk about aligning your security program with business objectives. This is something that is easier said than done and I am looking for any good tips I can get. The reason I say it is easier said than done is because often you get lots of push back when you try to do security the right way. Too often Management is only concerned about compliance checkboxes and so they don't support efforts to align the security program with the business objectives. The biggest obstacle here is educating management. They often don't want to learn or change and it's our job to convince them otherwise.
The rest of the day was pretty decent. I attended a couple of talks that were OK but nothing earth shattering. I had to miss the last session (of course it was one that I really wanted to go to) because of a conference call that I had to join in on.
All in all the conference is worth the money. It's a $200 conference so don't expect too much but you get your moneys worth. I'll probably attend next year again since it's here in Atlanta and offers good opportunities to network, meet new people and learn a little. If you're in the Atlanta area you many want to look into it next year.
