The Atlantic Security Conference - 2018


AtlSecCon 2018

AtlSecCon has come and gone again, April 26-27th, 2018 was the eighth consecutive year for the Atlantic Security Conference. We have seen organic growth year after year and this year was no exception. The attendees this year were easily the most diverse group to date and I feel very grateful to be involved with AtlSecCon as one of five directors. (Founder - Travis Barlow, Directors - Andrew Kozma, Steve Quinn, Darryl MacLeod, Nick Gyorfi).

New Venue


This years conference was held in the new Nova Centre, all I can say is wow! It really is a fantastic space and some of the views of Halifax from the ceiling to floor windows are nothing short of spectacular. It really is a first class venue and I am confident visitors to Halifax will feel the same. The new space can accommodate our conference for years to come, and hopefully we will continue to grow in both size and quality. More info about the centre can be found here:
The Halifax Convention Centre


Sponsors


GoSecure and HP Canada were this years Platinum sponsors. HP showcased their secure printing technology with interactive VR sessions and GoSecure allowed attendees to play the role of an ethical hacker in the soon to be released Steam game Nite Team 4.
Security Innovation returned to host our 2nd annual Capture the Flag (CTF) contest and I am very pleased to see the local competitors skills growing. Along with the CTF, attendees could also try their skills at the lock pick village. The crew from Sparrows provided demonstrations and tutorials and we will definitely be extending an invitation for them to return next year. In addition to this we added two workshops! Masarah Paquet Clouston (GoSecure) lead a group through "Botnet Tracking and Data Analysis Using Open-Source Tools" and Phillipe Arteau (GoSecure) ran "Orange is the new Hack - Introduction to Machine Learning with Orange".
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the AtlSecCon sponsors, without your support we could not make this happen. Some have been with us from the very beginning and others are sponsoring to introduce themselves to the rapidly growing Atlantic market, it is great to see local reps in both sales and service. Check them out, they may just have a solution to a problem you may be facing.

Speakers

Opening keynote Ted Demopoulos presented  material from his book "Infosec Rockstar - Geek will only get you so far" and it was very well received by our attendees. Ted is such a likable down to earth guy and he went out of his way to see that volunteers were given a signed copy of his book.
There were multiple tracks this year and we introduced a series of talks sponsored by Serene Risc, one of which was from Halifax's own David Fraser. David is representing the young man involved in the Nova Scotia Freedom of Information website incident, which consequently generated a lot of media buzz around the conference.
All speakers this year not only received free attendance to the speakers dinner but were also given the first ever AtlSecCon speakers coin dubbed the AtlSecCoin. The response was overwhelmingly positive and we plan to make this a tradition for years to come.
In true AtlSecCon fashion Scam School's Brian Brushwood returned this year to close out the conference. Attendees were treated to his full act and it certainly ended the day on a high note with lots of up close and in your face magic.

In Closing

Thats a wrap for AtlSecCon 2018! The dialog will continue with monthly Halifax Area Security Klatch meetings. If you happen to be in Halifax on the last Wednesday of the month please join us, check out www.thehask.com for scheduled meetings. It is a great place to improve your presentation skills, and work your way to the big stage at AtlSecCon for your very own AtlSecCoin:


I would also like to thank Zed Events for helping us organize and run our conference, their attention to detail and professionalism are second to none. Lastly thank you to all of our sponsors and attendees, see you next year! Until then stay Cybersafe.


Banzai!

Koz