Three Security Conferences and More

Spring brings us new conferences and announcements of further events later in the year. Following Infosec Europe two weeks ago, three major software security conferences are coming up.

I visited Infosec at Earls Court on the middle day and was pleasantly surprised how busy it was, and how useful the day turned out. Apart from catching up with colleagues and other contacts, I attended a couple of presentations in the technical stream. But I was pleased to have at-length conversations with three web application firewall vendors (Breach Security, Imperva and Art of Defence who partner with Zeus Technology, and F5 Networks), to hear the latest developments in this sector. There were fewer pure penetration testing companies—perhaps evidence of a growing realisation that security needs to be considered throughout the whole development and operation software lifecycle.

Next week there is a new conference in London - the International Secure Systems Development Conference will be much less vendor orientated, and focuses on building security in to all types of software, including web applications. I'm looking forward to the speakers but will have difficulty deciding between the management and technical/coding tracks for some of the sessions. The International Secure Systems Development Conference is an excellent opportunity if you are in the UK and interested in software security. The conference is being held at Westminster Conference Centre on May 20-21st and tickets can be booked in advance.

Then in June the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is holding it main European conference in Stockholm, Sweden. OWASP AppSec Research 2010 for both industry and academia will be the main application security event of the year in Europe. It is being coordinated by John Wilander the OWASP Sweden chapter leader with the help of the OWASP chapters in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The main North American equivalent, AppSec US 2010 will be held at the University of California in Irvine.

There are also many smaller one-day OWASP meetings and events around the world and closer by. I'm hoping to get to OWASP AppSec Ireland which is also in September.

Looking for free application security events? Perhaps attend the UK OWASP chapters in London, Leeds/North and Scotland. There's even a free training event at the end of this month in central London.