The Dangers of Social Networks (Brucon 2009)

This talk titled "Knowing Me Knowing You (The dangers of social networks)" was given by Brian Honan at Brucon 2009. The presentation can be viewed here.

Abstract: In late 2008 the author was challenged by an Irish security journalist to steal her identity. The author was only allowed to use information that could be found online, could not break any laws and could not use any social engineering techniques. The author will present what information was available online, whether or not he was succesful and what lessons can be learned from the experience in relation to an individual's privacy.

Speaker Bio: Brian Honan is recognised as an industry expert on information security and has addressed a number of major conferences relating to the management and securing of information technology. Brian is author of the book "Implementing ISO 27001 in a Windows Environment" (http://www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/2207) and has also published a number of technical papers and has been technical editor and reviewer of a number of industry recognised publications. Brian is also the European editor for the SANS Institute’s weekly SANS NewsBites, a semi-weekly electronic newsletter. Brian founded the Irish Reporting and Information Security Service (IRISS www.iriss.ie) which is Ireland's first national CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team). He is a member of the Information Systems Security Association, Irish Information Security Forum, Information Systems Audit and Control Association, a member of the Irish Computer Society,the Business Continuity Institute and was a founding member of the Irish Corporate Windows NT User Group.

Vivek Ramachandran is a security evangelist and has been working in computer security related fields for the past 7 years. In 2007, Vivek spoke at world renowned conferences Defcon (WEP Cloaking Exposed) and Toorcon (The Caffe Latte Attack). The discovery of the Caffe Latte Attack was covered by CBS5 news, BBC online, Network World etc news agencies.In 2006, Vivek was announced as one of winners of the Microsoft Security Shootout contest held in India among 65,000 participants. He has also been a recipient of a Team Achievement at Cisco Systems for his work on 802.1x and Port Security modules on the Catalyst 6500 switches. Currently he spends all of his time maintaining Security- Freak.Net , SecurityTube.Net and is the co-founder of Axonize. Vivek, is a Bachelor in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.You can contact him at vivek[at]securitytube.net