Page 14 - Cyber Warnings

BSides Canberra Australias Answer to DEF CON?

A wrap-up of a recent hacking conference in Australia s Capital City, Canberra.
By Michael McKinnon, Director - Commercial Services, Sense of Security

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On Friday 17 and Saturday 18 March 2017, I had the
pleasure of attending BSides Canberra once again.
According to the organizers, this hacker conference is now
officially Australia’s largest.

Juxtaposed by the City of Canberra, and the DEF CON like
attendees – mostly male (although that’s improving) black-t-
shirt-wearing hacker types (including me!) – this year was
marked by a decidedly family-friendly environment with the
most amazing community spirit you’ll find anywhere.

Spooks & Freedom Fighters
Let me set the scene and describe the contrast and surprising outcome you get when you put
“spooks” and “freedom fighters” in the same room for two days.

Canberra is Australia’s capital city, located roughly half-way between Sydney and Melbourne
and was established in the early 1900’s following this country’s Federation in 1901.

Accordingly, Canberra is home to a disproportionately high number of Government employees,
and as such has a uniquely bureaucratic and dare I say, slightly boring feel to it. I imagine it
might be like Washington, D.C. although I’ve never been there.

As you might expect in any capital city, there’s a large Military presence in Canberra, with a War
Memorial and Museum, and it is home to the Department of Defence (yes, we spell it with a ‘c’)
– including divisions like the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) which contains Australia’s
main defensive and offensive cyber capabilities.

You wouldn’t normally think of the ASD (akin to the NSA in this region) as being your typical
hacker conference sponsor. Yet in Australia, the ASD are one of the biggest supporters of
events like BSides Canberra. Perhaps it’s not that surprising given they’re on a constant hiring
spree with a need to keep up with better-paying private sector employers competing for the
same candidates.

Regardless, the irony of wearing a conference lanyard with “ASD” printed on it and a T-Shirt
emblazoned with “DEPARTMENT OF DEFIANCE” shouldn’t be lost on anybody. It certainly
wasn’t lost on Australia’s Podcast-Love-Child-of-Infosec, Patrick Gray in his keynote speech at
the event.

14 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – April 2017 Edition
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