Cyber Defenders and Strategic Thinkers Note: InfoWarCon 2014 will be held January 22-24 in Nashville, TN

by FedCyberTeam
November 25, 2013
CTOvision
No Comment

The conference that has been at the forefront of the entire cyber operations revolution, InfoWarCon, is back and is better than ever.

If you are an enterprise security professional, a corporate risk management executive, a military strategist or a cyber security entrepreneur you will want to engage with this event.

To learn more and to register see: http://ctolink.us/1bOLjmj

The number one reason to attend: You will mix with the greatest thinkers on cyber security and risk assessment ever gathered in one room. Interact with peers. The greats attend this event. And the greats speak at this event. Speakers include famous names like Winn Schwartau, Michelle Markoff, Melissa Hathaway, Matt Devost, Jason Healey, Marcus Sachs, Eneken Tikk-Ringas, Scott Boarg, Bill Gertz, Tim Thomas, Richard Forno and many more (see current list here). Advisors include many other great champions and famous thought leaders (see list here).

Here is some background from InfoWarCon’s founder Winn Schwartau:

More than 20 years ago, security experts predicted that Information Warfare would dominate conflict and would engage private companies, the individual and nation-states in ways they did not understand.

Some governments and most companies ignored the warnings. As one U.S. Congressman said in open testimony, “Mr. Schwartau, why would the bad guys ever want to use the internet…?” Ignorance, arrogance and apathy prevailed.

Other nations have successfully adapted the weaponization of technology as a means of force projection. The results are staggering losses in intellectual property and deep penetrating threats to national security. Can we even catch up?

Over the last two years, in conversation with colleagues around the world, it was made clear that InfowarCon must be revived – returned to its original cutting edge nature – for four compelling reasons.

In order to defend, you have to know how to attack.

1. We are defending against the past, not protecting against the future. The West severely lags behind our adversaries in cyberwar. The past 16 InfowarCons (held in the U.S. and E.U. from 1994-2010) brought together military, private sector and law enforcement under the meme, “we are all in this together.” The so-called ‘Black’ areas of the intelligence community have cloaked much of the offensive side of Information Warfare in secrecy. Many of those actors agree that we must demystify the offensive view and, as with defense, teach offense, as the bad guys typically have better access to such information than even the defenders of critical infrastructures.

2. As new technologies are introduced, economic interests have dominated the benefits. The upside? They bring humanity. We ignore the downside.InfowarCon will explore the weaponization of today’s technologies, laboratory and pre-commercialization developments and the future technologies. (We will treat Kinetic, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical weapons only as payloads of information systems. Other training congresses will delve more deeply into these areas.)3. New technologies are, sooner or later, used against us. GPS. The internet. Mobile devices. Drones. InfowarCon will examine how technological innovation should and can build in additional layers of safeguards at the design stage.

4. It is incumbent upon the defenders to thoroughly understand how technologies can be repurposed for hostile application. If you can’t attack, how can you defend? InfowarCon is designed to provide open source access to perceptions and views from the attacking side of the equation. What Poor-Man’s Terrorist Weapons can be built “on the cheap” yet offer our adversaries strategic and tactical advantage?

InfowarCon is not just another security conference with an endless parade of Pay-to-Play speeches with little or no value. InfowarCon is not the Same Old Thing at an overpriced hotel that looks the same as the last conference. It’s not at a convention center where sponsors and exhibitors have to spend absurd amounts of money to put up their banners, get electricity and internet.

I want to put on the kind of conference Infowarcon was when I started it twenty years ago. I want to make InfowarCon a truly immersive experience, a compelling interactive “Show Me, Don’t Tell Me” discussion, an event where non-attendees will self-flagellate for not coming. I want thousands of remote attendees around the world to be able to participate over InfowarCon.TV. I want to build an event that makes a difference in today’s world. With your esteemed help, I believe we are well on our way to achieving that.

As it always has, InfowarCon 2014 will bring together political, military, academic, DIY-er, and commercial leaders from around the world to examine the current, future, and potential hostile use of information technologies and how to neutralize current ones. InfowarCon 2014 will provide training and demonstrations in two broad areas: Technology & Policy.

Winn Schwartau, Founder
Winn@InfowarCon.com
+1.727.393.6600