t2′09 Challenge Stats – Friday 2009-09-04

Timo Hirvonen from Tampere, Finland was the first one to solve the t2’09 Challenge. The feat that he pulled off was absolutely amazing. Congratulations!

That being said, now the rest of the contestants should concentrate on the elegance of the answer.

So far Timo is the only one who has been able to solve phase 1 (and well rest of the phases as well 🙂

t2’09 Challenge Hint #1

Based on the comments and email discussions the general opinion seemed to be that we should not reveal too much information, especially since one contestant has been able to solve the first stage without any hints.

So, here we go: it is RC4.

Next hint will be published today 22:00 EEST (GMT +03:00). The next hint will be about the key.

t2′09 Challenge Stats – Thursday 2009-09-03

One contestant at phase 2 – Congrats! (if you are reading this please email us now – we want to know who you are 🙂

Although we feel that the situation has changed a bit as one contestant has been able to solve the phase 1 we still decided to proceed with the plan to publish more hints on Friday morning as we feel that it makes the Challenge more interesting.

More t2’09 Challenge Hints Will Be Published On Friday

Many people have pointed out that there are way too many things that can be done with time and all of you are right. As the purpose of the Challenge is to be entertaining rather than annoying we will publish more hints on Friday morning 10:00 EEST (GMT +03:00).

Please be active and comment to this post how much information you would like to get on Friday. Currently we are thinking of releasing the pseudo-code for calculating the key.

Jarno Niemelä to talk about Spying via Bluetooth

Jarno Niemelä from F-Secure will explain us why all those people who think that their mobile phone is being spied on are not necessary crazy. This presentation gives an overview of just what is possible do over Bluetooth once the attacking device is trusted, what spy can do over Bluetooth and what can be done to prevent it.

T2 staff thinks that this talk defines quite well what “trust” really means.

Please see the schedule for details.

Rafael Dominguez Vega to talk about USB Attacks

Rafael Dominguez Vega from MWR InfoSecurity will go through the dangers of USB devices. The presentation will cover a wide range of security considerations for USB devices. However, it will specifically focus on the evolution of an attack that can be delivered through a malicious USB device. The talk will also include discussion about the methods that can be used to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in USB drivers and their advantages and disadvantages.

T2 staff thinks that you should think twice before you use a USB stick from a security conference … 🙂

Please see the schedule for details.

Juhani Eronen to talk about Real World Incidents

Juhani Eronen from CERT-FI will present post-mortem studies on incident and vulnerability coordination projects he has been involved with, including recent CERT-FI disclosures.

T2 staff thinks that this talk will be an important lesson for everybody, especially those working for product development. If you or your organization would like to avoid some of the pitfalls — this talk is for you!

Please see the schedule for details.

Scott McIntyre to talk about Why Security Fails

Scott McIntyre from XS4ALL will explain why security fails. Handling of recent threats, the role of “disclosure”, governance, FUD and the ever present (and increasing) threat of government over-regulation stifling innovation are just some of the topics which will be covered during this keynote.

We all suffer the fallout from IT security failures, and understanding the far-reaching consequences to our actions is critical if we’re ever going to have a safer Internet experience for the masses.

T2 staff thinks that if you have ever wondered how an ISP copes with all the threats passing through their network (including at layer-8), yet still manages to love the technology they provide to you — this talk is for you!

Please see the schedule for details.