January 26, 2006

Social Engineering: Attacking the Weakest Links in Computer Security...People

As technical attacks on systems have increased, so have numerous technology-based countermeasures been used successfully to thwart them. As a result, attackers are increasingly targeting people (your trusted workers) through the use of social engineering methods, often gaining unnoticed access to computer systems and sensitive data. How big is the problem? What tricks are the bad guys using? How safe is your organization from falling victim to this risk? What can you do to defend against it? Are you the weakest link? In the era of Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, HIPPA, the Patriot Act and more, it's your obligation to prepare, defend and react.

Included in this presentation will be video vignettes by Kevin Rose (formerly of TechTV) to demonstrate a social engineering attack and an interview with Kevin Mitnick, one of the most famous criminal hackers (and "social engineer") to be jailed. The FBI arrested him on February 15, 1995. Mitnick was convicted of wire fraud and of breaking into the computer systems of Fujitsu, Motorola, Nokia, and Sun Microsystems. He served five years in prison (four years of it pre-trial), 8 months of that in solitary confinement, and was released on January 21, 2000. During his supervised release, which ended in 2003, he was restricted from using any communications technology other than a landline telephone. Author of The Art of Deception, Kevin is also a security consultant to corporations worldwide and cofounder of Defensive Thinking, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm.

Our Speaker

Tom Smith, President of Ispirian Incorporated

Tom Smith is a computer forensics specialist with Ispirian Incorporated, Clarkson Valley MO. Tom has 36 years in technology and 6 years in law enforcement. He has testified as an expert witness in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri, regarding computer software licensing customs, practices and usage in trade. Tom is a member of the High Technology Crime Investigation Association (HTCIA) and the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA.)