TechBirmingham (techbirmingham.com), along with the Central Alabama Chapter of the Information Systems Security Association (CAISSA) and the InfraGard Birmingham Members Alliance, will host the Alabama Cyber Now Conference on April 5, 2016, at Regions Park in Birmingham Alabama. This event will include a broad range of technical and management speakers focused on today’s key cyber security issues.

 

If your company is interested in sponsoring this event, click here for more information. 

 

Registration is now open at the following address: 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/alabama-cyber-now-conference-tickets-20867811185 

 

ISSA members receive a $30 discount on registration. The discount code will be made available soon.

Our December Chapter meeting will feature Mr. Ben Carlisle and Mr. Jess Bowers from Microsoft who will be speaking on WINDOWS 10 Security .   Topics such as Secure Boot, Credential Guard, AppLocker, Microsoft Passport, Windows Hello, and BitLocker will be covered.  Don't miss this exciting discussion from Microsoft on their recently released operating system.

See the link below to register and RSVP so we can provide sufficient food for lunch.  We will meet at 11:00 AM at Protective Life on Hwy 280.

See you on Dec 3rd. 

Don't forget to register for our November 5th chapter meeting.  Our speaker will be Mr. Jeremy Conway, CTO MAD Security who will be presenting a talk entitled: Cyber Security Defense Techniques and Strategies That Work!  Jeremy has spoken to our chapter several times always provides an exciting and in-depth talk.  Jeremy draws a crowd when he talks, so register today and don't miss this presentation.  (MAD Security has been a Chapter sponsor for the past 3 years.)

See the link below to register and RSVP so sufficient Dreamland BBQ can be ordered.

See you on Nov 5th. 

Don't forget to register for our October 1, 2015 meeting where we Mr. Daniel Clemens, CEO of Packet Ninjas, will be providing us insight into today's cyber security world.  Dan has spoken to our Chapter several times in the past and always is a big hit.  His understanding of the cyber world and his ability to translate today's threats/environment to language that we all can understand resulting in useful take-a-ways for everyone is uncanny.  Don't miss this meeting.

 

See you there! 

Mr. David Nelson, Integrity Technology Solutions, presented a great program on Social Engineering to all those who attended.  Feedback indicated that the topic was right on considering the increase in spear phishing, data thefts, and identify theft prevalent in today's world.
 

Our August 6th meeting was very successful as Chad Herren from F5 Networks discussed the value of Web Application Firewalls.  All who attended enjoyed Chad's presentation and discuss. Of interest, Fishnet and Acuvant merged and are now OTPIV.  F5 is a part of Fishnet.

 

Our next meeting will be on Sep 3rd where Dave Nelson from Integrity will be speaking on Anatomy of a Full Scale Social Engineering Attack.  Don't miss this!  RSVP when you get the meeting invitation.  The meeting will be a Protective Life on Hwy  280 in Homewood starting at 11:00 AM.  A light lunch will be provided.

 

See you there! 

In case you missed it, our July 9th Chapter meeting was outstanding!  Ms. Mary Singh, Senior Consultant from Mandiant Corp, presented Incident Response and Forensics from Mandiant's perspective.  She reviewed the most prevalent attack approaches in use by today's "cyber criminals" and reviewed intrusions from several big name company's who have recently been in the news. Attendance was one of the largest we've had in recent months.

 

Mark August 6th on your calendar for our next meeting.  Fishnet will be presenting.  Check our web site frequently for additional information.  Go to issa.org to join the ISSA and select Central Alabama as your chapter.. 

The Southeastern Cyber Security Summit on Jun 3-4, 2015 in Huntsville was an excellent showcase for Cyber Security professionals, educators and administrators.  All that did not attend this year's SCSS should mark Jun 9 & 10, 2016 on their calendars and attend next year's event.  This event is sponsored by the North Alabama Chapter and the Cyber Huntsville initiative. 

Our May meeting was an exciting time for all.  Mr. Josh Smith, Dynetics, presented the "hackers" view of PowerShell and demonstrated several exploits.

Although we had to cancel our March Chapter meeting due to winter weather in our area, our April Chapter meeting was a success with Ernie Pritchard from Packet Ninja discussing Incident Response Planning relative to a cyber breach.  All enjoyed Ernie's insight and thoughts.  

Mother Nature took its toll on our March Chapter meeting.  Member safety was paramount in our decision to cancel the meeting as the meteorologists predictions for icy conditions seemed to get worse as the morning of March 5th wore on.  At 8 AM the NWS issue a winter storm warning for metro Birmingham and after contacting all the Chapter leadership, we decided that canceling the meeting was the best course of action for the safety of our members and guests.   Our speaker's, Dave Nelson, flight was scheduled for Wednesday evening only to be canceled due to weather in Detroit.  He booked an early morning flight on Thursday and was in the air went we canceled the meeting.  When he landed I spoke to him expressing our safety concerns.  He was very understanding.  We hope to re-schedule Dave to return later in the year.

 

Good news!  Varonis and Symantec have become Chapter sponsors and their logos will be added to our Sponsors page.  We look forward to seeing them at our next Chapter meeting on April 2nd.

 

Yours truly,

 

Dr. Joe PopinskI

CISSP CPP CFE CISM

ISSA Fellow

Chapter President

Our first two chapter meetings in 2015 were a great success.  January's speaker was Mr. Gary Warner of UAB's Computer and Information Sciences Department who spoke on Cyber Event for 2014 and listed his predictions for Cyber related events for 2015.  And in February, we had Mr. Jason Riddle from LBMC Inc. in Nashville who spoke on Tips for Responding to Data Breaches.  Both were great presentations for our Chapter.