It’s that time of the year when IRISSCON—the biggest security conference in Ireland, in my humble opinion—springs into life with a great collection of talks and Capture the Flag events. Held on November 23 in Dublin, there will be a strong focus on working in Infosec this year, alongside some of the problems faced by industry practitioners. For my part, I’ll be giving a retooled run-through of my talk Makhra Ni Orroz, which received a great response at SteelCon. I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes down with a new audience!
Elsewhere at IRISSCON, the theme of breaking into Infosec via non-traditional routes is prominent—and this has been a hot topic this year, thanks to Equifax and music degrees. With that in mind, “Getting into the infosec industry from different directions,” by Lee Munson and Thom Langford will be a must watch. There’s a huge range of people working in Infosec with no technology qualifications (myself included), and presentations like this are a great way to explain why and how there are so many diverse skill sets on offer.
Elsewhere, we have “Would the real imposter please stand up?” by Dr. Jessica Barker, which looks at the very real problem of “Imposter Syndrome” suffered by those working in security fields—something I suspect may have been exacerbated as a direct result of the explosion of angry shouting related to non-tech qualifications.
In another handy talk for those in the Infosec field, we have “Three security professionals walk into a bar” by Javvad Malik, which will show you how to make yourself a more attractive proposition for both your 0rg and the industry in general. A little self improvement goes a long way!
Quentyn Taylor will add further insight into the daily dealings of a CISO with “The sights, the sounds, the smells of a hard working CISO on the road.” Last but not least, FreakyClown will be giving a deep dive into the world of social engineering and weaknesses in physical and digital security with the wonderfully titled “How I rob banks.”
If you haven’t been to a security conference before, or even if you’re a seasoned hand on the conference circuit, this is definitely one of the best value events you can attend, so please come along and say hello!
