ITSecCamp 2019 in Augsburg

Written by Dominik Joe Pantůček on 28 listopadu, 2019.

Traveling security research problem is just a slightly tweaked version of the infamous traveling salesman problem. Read on to see where we went this week!

Developing Cryptoucan™ gave us a lot of research material into how the private keys are vulnerable, how they can be stolen and what does it mean to really try to secure them. And being invited to IHK Schwaben[1] organized ITSecCamp 2019[2] event, I was more than happy to give a talk about all the vulnerabilities that can help the attacker steal the private key and also about possible mitigations of such threats.

Picture 1: Refreshments 😉

Breakfast at the hotel, second breakfast at the venue, elevenses between morning talks – you can imagine, it is really hard being a traveling security researcher. And yes, then the lunch – of course. But free food[3] aside, the morning was much about the traditional approach to security. Large security corporations[4] sharing their „knowledge“, industry organizations[5] trying to educate and other stuff like that.

Picture 2: BSI’s educational talk with Peter Danil

But after the lunch break, the networking started, everyone introduced themselves with just a few words, people gathered, chatted and generally everyone was in the mood to discuss any security issues you might encounter. And finally the barcamp session.

Barcamp means that anyone can pitch a talk and the audience decides what to hear. Turned out there was less speakers than slots – so in the end you everyone got the chance to present something. There were three sessions running in parallel, although during the first talk „Live Hacking“ the other two sessions were empty.

Second session in the largest auditorium was about Cryptoucan™ development. All the obstacles and basically all the stuff now discussed at Cryptoucan™ website[6]. The audience was (apparently) pleasantly surprised at the level of detail we work at. And of course the good old story about reading Cryptoucan™ flash memory with electron tunneling microscope cheered everyone up.

But the biggest surprise came after the talk. Many people wanted to know how to buy Cryptoucan™ right now. I think it is time to start shipping first devices to early adopters, what do you think?

All in all it was a great event and I am looking forward hearing from all the contacts we get to know there! Also Anna[7], great job organizing such event, thank you very much!

And yes, after the event, Christmas markets …

Picture 3: The Christmas market in front of the town hall

 

And that is all from the traveling security researcher. See you next week with more!


References

1. https://www.schwaben.ihk.de/

2. https://events.schwaben.ihk.de/itseccamp2019

3. Mike Slackenerny. Free food. It binds us.: A need-based framework for characterizing nano-informatic structures, Intl. Journal of Temporal Deflective Behavior, Vol. 1, No. 39, pp.29, 1998, available online at http://phdcomics.com/archive_journal.php?n=39

4. https://www.kaspersky.com/

5. https://www.bsi.bund.de/DE/Home/home_node.html

6. https://cryptoucan.eu/about.html

7. https://www.schwaben.ihk.de/digitalisierung-schwaben/veranstaltungen-digitalisierung/veranstaltungsrueckblick/it-sicherheitstag-meets-barcamp-4629966