Until now, we can say that Oil and Gas companies have been the least targeted by cyber crime attacks but because oil’s value is practically sky-rocketing nowadays it is safe to say that we can expect a relatively high number of malicious attacks targeting the top oil production companies. There is no point in explaining how much  damage can a successful attack against an oil company do when converted into money. Because precaution is always better then dealing with the damage done, the SMi Group will organize this November an international conference under the name of the Oil and Gas Cyber Security Forum in an effort to uncover and resolve all the potential virtual security weakness of large oil producers. As you can expect from an event of this magnitude, the Oil and Gas Cyber Security Forum will bring together Information Technology Security professionals, Security Team leaders and the best data protection connoisseurs to analyze all the cyber protection challenges that the energy sector has to deal with and also to try and find the best solutions for dealing with them.

The event will take place between the 21st and 22nd of November 2011 in the capital of the United Kingdom, London and will have the renowned Copthorne Tara Hotel as its venue. Here is a list of the most important topics of debate during the Oil and Gas Cyber Security Forum:

- The latest breakthroughs in cyber security mechanisms presented by the Department of Homeland Security

- How to identify and analyze the newest and more serious virtual security threats and also recognizing  the latest hacking trends

- Proper understanding of the potential damage done by a successful cyber attack

- Learn how to fend off hacker attacks directly from Saudi Aramco

- What can be learned from Stuxnet

- How to properly implement and use supervisory control and data acquisition ( SCADA ) security methodologies

- A live demonstration meant to showcase most of the hacking as well as the cyber security protection techniques discussed

This large event will take place in Paris, France, between the 15th and 17th of November 2011. The venue of the summit will be the Paris Nord Villepinte. Registration can be done completely online on the event’s official website and the prices are as follows :

Full Experience ( three days ): 1 620 Euros – Full Rate, 1 140 Euros – Exhibitor, 1 300 Euros – Loyalty, 1465 – VIP

Gold ( two days ) : 1 360 Euros – Full Rate, 960 Euros – Exhibitor, 1 095 Euros – Loyalty, 1 233 Euros – VIP

Silver ( one day ) : 810 Euros – Full Rate, 570 Euros – Exhibitor, 652 Euros – Loyalty, 733 Euros – VIP

Proceedings only: 400 Euros

It is important to note that these prices do not include the value added tax so if you’ve decided on one of the passes presented here, add 19.6 % ( representing the value added tax ) to its price. Means of payment include Visa, MasterCard, American Express, PayPal and JCB. You can also pay through bank transfer. If you want to use this method of paying, visit the official website of the conference to where you can find the proper bank details .

To better understand what’s in store for you at the CARTES & IDentification conference, here is a short list including some of the key topics discussed during the event:

- Internet of Things Apps

- Mobile means of payment and Financial Services

- Data and Privacy protection and Network Infrastructure Security

- Data Security in a Cloud Computing environment

- Hacking: past, present and future techniques

- Smart Technology: Green Computing

- The Authentication process used by Social Networks and in the Banking environment

- New Card Ideas : Loyalty Programs and Prepaid cards made easy

Anyone wanting to learn more about virtual security or computer forensics in the hopes of pursuing a successful Information Technology career is encouraged to attend this conference. The courses of SANS San Francisco 2011 are also aimed to bring students one step closer to various certifications they may be after but also improve the knowledge anyone already involved in practicing IT security and data protection. To gain a better understanding of what SANS San Francisco 2011 is all about, here is a short description for each of the available courses:

Security – 401, System Administration and Network Security Essentials with Chris Christianson representing Travis Credit Union

This course is the bread and butter of any IT security practitioner. Basically, after attending this course you will be up to date with all the latest ways to fight organized cyber crime and you will also find out about all the recent methods used by hackers to attack and infiltrate network infrastructures. This course is presented in such a way that after attending it, anyone will possess the necessary tools to handle some of the toughest real life hacking attacks situations. This is what makes this course perfect for IT specialists already occupying jobs that demand excellent virtual protection.

Security – 504, Hacking Methodologies, System Weaknesses and Handling Threats, with John Strand, certified SANS instructor

This course was developed in such a way to cover all the common methods used by hackers to infect their targets. As such, Security 504 is a great opportunity for System Engineers and IT Programmers to learn how to create impenetrable network infrastructures or applications. This will be made possible by first knowing how hackers think and also how they plan their attacks. Furthermore, anyone attending will get the chance to also learn about how to best handle the repercussions of a successful hacker attack by experimenting with a simulated life like situation.

Forensics 408 – Investigating Hacker Traces, Win in depth, with Michael Murr, SANS Senior Instructor

As the title suggests, For 408 will mainly focus on tracking down hackers by analyzing all the traces they leave behind after executing their malicious deeds. This course will focus only on the protection of the Windows operating system but will take a very in depth look at what are the potential weaknesses that could be exploited by hackers. This course is the first one addressing computer forensics, so this is where you should start if want to learn more about this topic.

One such event will be the Information Retention & eDiscovery Exchange conference that will take place between the 14th and 16th of November 2011 in the city of Munich, Germany. This summit will bring together only the best Legal IT practitioners, Software Programmers, System engineers, Network Administrators and Virtual Security experts so that technological advancement is thoroughly discussed. The venue of this event will be the luxurious Kempinsky Airport Munich Hotel. In order to attend this event you must first request for an Invitation on the conference’s official website. To do this you must answer some general questions about your Job and the company you own or are working for and after a brief judging process you will be announced by e-mail if you have been offered the privilege to attend this summit and network with a very select group of individuals in the field.

The Agenda of this event will be filled with strategic conference debates that have been carefully planned out nine months in advance to ensure a high level of maturity and professionalism so that these discussion will prove to be very fructuous. Also, attendees will be able to request one on one business meetings with anyone representing a top company or organization present at the event. As such, the Information Retention & eDiscovery Exchange conference proves to be an excellent opportunity to establish good professional relationships with the best IT solution providers in the branch. If you register for this event before Friday the 16th of September, you will be required to pay a 950 Euro fee plus the value added tax however, registration is available until before the start of the conference  and the standard price will be 1150 Euros plus the value added tax. This three day package will include two night at the Kempinsky Airport Munich Hotel, lunch breakfast and refreshments, official networking dinner, the possibility to opt for one on one business meetings with select individuals and access to the secure conference website where you can carefully plan out your three day program.

If you are reading this article from Japan or anywhere near it, you will be glad to hear that the System Administration and Network Security organization will set-up one of its autumn conferences this November in the capital of Japan, Tokyo. This event is one of the best opportunities for any Asian student to get a head start in his IT security career and also come one step closer to achieving his Global Information Assurance Certification by attending the course held at the SANS Tokyo Autumn 2011 conference. The conference will take place between the 14th and 19th of November at the UDX summit and its headline will be the Security 504 Hacking Methods, Weaknesses and Handling Attacks course. While anyone working with data protection would have a lot to learn by attending the SANS Tokyo 2011 conference, this event mostly targets the IT practitioners that have the responsibility to deal with cyber crime attacks. These include Incident handlers, IT administrators, Security team leaders involved with stopping hacking attempts.

Aside from the Security 504 Hacking Methods, Weaknesses and Handling Attacks course, other topics discussed during the  SANS Tokyo Autumn 2011 conference will include the following :

- a step by step explanation of how most of the hackers plan their attacks and execute them

- all the new ways hackers use to infiltrate infrastructures

- practical workshop explaining how to scan for and identify potential security weaknesses

- developing practical ways to handle attacks and also gathering a top team to do this

- assessing the damage done by a hacker attack and restoring the virtual infrastructure for business

- various ways of defending against a hacker attack

One such event will be the Cyber Security Asia 2011 conference held between the 9th and 10th of November in Singapore. This summit is organized by SMi Asia with Microsoft as main sponsor and will have the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel and its venue. The Cyber Security Asia 2011 conference will bring together the best virtual security experts that assure the protection of the regional military cyberspace. The main purpose of this event will be to find the best ways to upgrade the military security infrastructure and make in impenetrable against hacker attacks. Of course, this will not be a simple task so not only will there be cyber security experts present at this event but also IT engineers and the best system administrators . The Cyber Security Asia 2011 conference is a great opportunity for anyone pursuing a successful career in IT security because it offers young enthusiasts the opportunity of networking with the top cyber security buffs from all over the world. With such a select list of attendees, you can be sure you will get the chance to form important professional bonds that could benefit you as well as others on your way to guarantee a safe and stable Asian cyber environment. Also, during the Cyber Security Asia 2011 conference a parallel Cyber Security Forum Initiative will be organized where everyone will get the chance to try and also purchase the latest products developed by the top cyber security companies from all over the world.

If this wasn’t enough, another important reason to attend the Cyber Security Asia 2011 conference is because you will get the chance to participate at prolonged sessions focused on discussing the best methodologies to upgrade the critical national security infrastructure so that it can withstand any outside threat. Aside from this, attendees will also be able to hear from renowned speakers representing some of the largest Asian IT organizations including Virtual Security Malaysia, Cloud Computing Security Alliance, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense, the Indian Ministry of Defense, the Singapore Science Technology and Research Agency, the Singapore International Centre for Terrorism Analysis and Political Violence and many more.

SANS Sydney 2011 will be taking place between the 11th and 19th of November in Sydney Australia and its venue will be luxurious Sydney Marriot Hotel. During this event students will get the chance to attend five different courses including security orientated ones like SEC – 401 System Administration and Network Security Essentials, network forensics ones like the FOR – 558 course and an audit one, AUD – 507: System, Network and Perimeter Audit.

To gain a better understanding of what is to be gained by participating in the Sydney System Administration and Network Security Conference here is a short presentation for each of the courses available for attendance during this event :

Security – 401, System Administration and Network Security Essential Information training with Bryce Galbrath, senior SANS instructor

            Basically, this course will prepare everyone attending for the serious threats that have to be faced while having an important data security job. After the completion of this test you will be able to immediately put what you have learned to good use in real life situations. Also, you can be sure that this will be a big step forward in your cyber security career as you will gain important knowledge and have a serious advantage over the competition. If all this sounds too good to be  true, you can verify it by reading the testimonies of past attendees on the SANS Facebook page for example.

Security – 660, Advanced Testing of Security Infrastructures, stopping Security Exploits and Logical Hacking with Stephen Simms, SANS certified instructor

The main goal of this course is to prepare students for the future wave of hacker attacks by identifying potential flaws in Network Infrastructures and covering these security holes before they can be exploited by hackers wanting to use them as means of infiltration. Attendance for this course should be comprised of IT Engineers, Incident Analyzers and Security Penetration Testers.

Security – 546, Internet Protocol version 6 Essentials with Paul Henry, SANS senior instructor

The goal of Sec 546 is to teach students everything they need to know when implementing or using the latest version of Internet Protocol. Even if you haven’t worked already with IPv6, you shouldn’t miss this opportunity to learn about it because it constitutes the future if IT networking.

 Forensics 558 – Network Forensics with Paul Henry, SANS senior instructor

This course is all about tracking down hackers by identifying the traces they left when performing their malicious actions. Areas searched include proxies, IDS, firewalls or routers.

Even so, the truth is that there are far more black hat hackers out there than white hat ones and if we were to rely only on this way of combating cyber criminals we would surely be fighting a losing battle. Another way to combat cyber crime is to make sure you always stay ahead of it by using secure coding when programming any type of app or program. Ken van Wyk is one of the best security experts in the industry that has dedicated his entire career to writing bulletproof applications almost impossible to hack. He has over 22 years of IT protection experience in both the military and commercial sectors and is also the author of renowned books on Secure Programming, Incident Response and many other IT security issues. This November, Ken van Wyk has decided to share some of his experience with the rest of the cyber security practitioners by organizing the Art of Building Bulletproof iOS and Android Apps conference in the capital of Italy, Rome. This event will take place between the 14th and 16th of November 2011 and will have the well known Visconti Palace Hotel as its venue.

The main purpose of this event will be teaching anyone interested how to develop mobile technology applications that are immune to hacker attacks. This will all be done by using a very professional approach and breaking down the conference into smaller parts to assure that every attendee understand the processes taught. Topics discussed will also include  the Architecture of any application, code reviewing, common protection techniques, Penetration testing, Security testing, Reviewing program design and also understanding the basic though process behind any black hat hacker attack.

The 6th Annual Data Protection Practical Compliance Conference will take place between the 10th and 11th of November 2011 in Dublin, Ireland. The venue for this event will be the luxurious Radisson Blu Royal Hotel. The main purpose of this conference will be to bring together representatives from the top virtual security organizations in Ireland. As such, the 6th Annual Data Protection Practical Compliance Conference will be a great opportunity to network with some of the best national security experts, IT engineers, system administrators, cyber security team managers and other individuals occupying key decision making jobs within the largest companies from Ireland. It goes without saying that if you are a student graduate, undergraduate or just a young cyber protection enthusiasts you should do everything you can to attend this event because it give you a nice boost and  catapult your career by forming key professional connections with some of the security connoisseurs mentioned above. Also, everyone attending will find out about the latest methodologies and techniques used to efficiently counter cyber crime and also provide the best data protection. As such, this event is highly recommended for large companies that are in need of data protection since nothing can cripple an organization more than a data security breach.

If all this didn’t convince you about the importance of attending the 6th Annual Data Protection Practical Compliance Conference, then here are some other key topics discussed throughout this event that may just catch your attention:

Privacy, Risk Management and future developments  with Wiliam Malcolm, Privacy Counsel at Google

Information Protection for the Employer’s Handbook with Doctor Robert Clark, consultant at one of the leading Irish commercial law firms, Arthur Cox

Privacy and Data Protection Issues: What can be learned from the threats faced by the Adult Entertainment Industry with Richard Holis, CEO at Orthus

Knowledge gained from past data breaches and exploited security weaknesses with Colin Roney, also an Associate at Arthur Cox

Information Protection and Outsourcing with the Director of the second largest professional service company worldwide Deloitte, Gary Comiskey

The International Conference on Informatics Engineering & Information Science held this November will also offer young students the chance to present their work and ideas through papers. This can also prove to be a great step forward in every student’s IT career because he might be spotted by large companies and taken under their wing. Papers accepted for this event can be based on the following research topics:

- Data Mine                             – Picture Processing                 – Ontology, Semantic Internet

- WiFi Communication                       – Software Programming         – Internet Security

- PC Security                           – Internet Social Networks      – Applications that process signals

- Forensics Methodologies and Programs                               – The managing of Infrastructures

- P 2 P Social Networks          – Anti – Organized Cyber Crime – Mobile Technologies

- Data Storage                         – Information Spreading on Social Networks

Also note that these are not the only topics available to be treated in papers, these are only the most important ones. For a complete list of the topics available for students to choose from visit the official website of the International Conference on Informatics Engineering & Information Science. All the papers will be reviewed by  no less than 2 reviewers and all of them will be published in the Comm. in Computer and IT Science. The nest papers however will be published in the famous specialized IT journals like ” Informatica “, ” The International Journal of IT Service and Mobile Programming “, The International Journal of Virtual Security and Network Forensics ” and the ” Information Technology in Education ” Journal. As such, the International Conference on Informatics Engineering & Information Science is a great way to catapult your IT career into big time.

The registration for this event is done online and the costs are the following: 170 dollars for any accompanying individual or representative without Kit, 350 dollars for  attendees that submitted a paper and also want to benefit from the CDs available that contain the information presented at the conference and 540 dollars for regular full registration with CDs included also. The registration sum also covers a sightseeing tour of the luxurious capital of Malaysia and three dinners or lunches depending on what the attendee chooses. Paying methods include all types of credit cards and PayPal.