Author: Henri Lindberg

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How was t2’14, really?

Year after year we hear stories about people who annually almost attend t2. The intention is always there, but when the time comes to register for the event, they find themselves in the middle of a floppy disk inventory or some other significant crisis at (work|home|garden).

The question for many of these people then remains – was it any good, should I attend next year? The advisory board is certainly too biased to answer this question; we are like winemakers who think each year qualifies as a vintage. The regulars and other long-time conference goers gladly reminisce past events, while wearing some obscure and highly collectible t-shirt from ’04. In our view, a first time speaker’s opinion is probably a good objective yardstick.

Patrick Wardle, flying half-way across the globe to deliver two talks in the cold and snowy Helsinki, was kind enough to share his experiences in this Synack lab’s blog post. For other t2 coverage, see #t2infosec on Twitter

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t2’14 Challenge to be released 2014-09-13 10:00 EEST

Due to recent extraordinary events, we’re diverting from our usual Challenge process this year. Instead of a traditional puzzle, a captured binary will be released for crowdsourced reverse-engineering.

Background

Running assets is always difficult, however this year has been excruciating for t2 infosec. We lost one of our most prized and well placed deep cover operatives in a foreign three letter agency. Shortly after the CFP, communications stopped and we have to assume her new assignment is a permanent placement at a black site somewhere in Eastern Europe.

Luckily for us, the person was able to exfiltrate a key piece of an intelligence analysis system before disappearing. In order to turn the tables and go for the pride-and-ego down, our intention is to burn this capability once and for all.

Y-LOCKPOINT is designed for searching and analyzing compromised computer systems. Despite the OPSEC failures, which allowed us to gain access to front-end application, the binary is well-protected – preliminary analysis indicates emphasis on multi-layer protection and resistance to analysis.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to participate in the crowdsourced reverse engineering effort of the acquired front-end binary.

Details

The first person to recover all content will win a free ticket to t2’14 conference. In addition to this, the creators of the Challenge will select another winner among the next ten correct answers. The criteria for the other selection is the elegance of the answer. In short, you can win with both speed and style.

The Challenge will be released on 2014-09-13 10:00 EEST right here at t2.fi

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Call for Papers 2014

Do you feel like Las Vegas is too hot, Berlin too bohème, Miami too humid, Singapore too clean and Pattaya just totally confusing ? No worries! Helsinki will be the perfect match for you – guaranteed low temperature, high tech and just enough regulation to make everything appear to be under control. This is the country where indestructible mobile phone and Linux kernel were invented.

Helsinki, the capital of Finland, known for the Finnish design and casual-yet-almost-sophisticated drinking culture offers you the chance to familiarize yourself with the birth place of many popular PC, console and mobile games. The murder rate of only 2.2 per 100 000 people makes Finland one of the safest countries for delivering a presentation. Do polar bears roam free in Helsinki? How do you go from being silent in three languages to having incoherent discussions in all of them? What does 176% mobile penetration look like? Come and see for yourself!

t2’14 is looking for technical infosec presentations with original content. Whether it’s your complicated relationship with the APT, embedded device exploitation, tactics and operational procedures in high stress / high risk operations, implementing or avoiding global surveillance, latest advances in offensive/defensive applications of computer science, the gospel of weird machine, breaking the Internet, reverse engineering milware or something totally different, we’d like to hear about it.

The advisory board will be reviewing submissions until 2014-07-04. First come, first served. No returns, no refunds.

Quick facts for speakers
+ presentation length 60-120 minutes, in English
+ complimentary travel and accommodation
+ decent speaker hospitality benefits
+ no marketing or product propaganda

A blast from the past:
https://www.google.com/search?q=site:t2.fi%20intitle:%22schedule%20for%22

How to submit
Please include the following with your submission (incomplete submissions will not be accepted):

  1. Contact information (email and cell phone)
  2. Country and city of origin for your travel to the conference
  3. Brief biography (including employer and/or affiliations)
  4. Title of the presentation
  5. Presentation abstract
  6. Explanation why your submission is significant
  7. If your presentation references a paper or piece of software that you have published, please provide us with either a copy of the said paper or software, or an URL where we can obtain it
  8. List any other publications or conferences where this material has been or will be published/submitted

Please send the above information to cfp-2014 (at) lists.t2.fi