This is the first in a series of previews of AUUG 2006 - The Conference for Unix, Linux and Open Source Professionals. This week we are highlighting keynote speakers Lars Rasmussen of Google and Peter Gutmann of the University of Auckland.
Lars Rasmussen is a member of Google's technical staff and the lead engineer of the team that created Google Maps. Lars will discuss the many pieces of the puzzle comprising Google Maps - in particular, the pros and cons of AJAX, and delve into some particular technical challenges that had to be met. Lars will also give a high-level overview of the challenges involved in working with spatial data: making it searchable, routable, and browsable. Peter Gutmann is a self-confessed professional paranoid, who helped write the popular PGP encryption package, has authored a number of papers and RFC's on security and encryption, and is the author of the open source Cryptlib security toolkit. Peter will talk on the convergence of Internet Security Threats. Just as the Internet has subsumed all earlier networking technology (ARPAnet, ATM, BITnet, DECnet, Ethernet, ISDN, JANET, NSFNET, and many more), so an omnibus Internet security threat is gradually subsuming all earlier discrete threats (ID theft, phishing, script kiddies, spam, spyware, trojan horses, viruses). Instead of being small-scale (if prolific) nuisances perpetrated mostly by script kiddies, these blended threats are increasingly being created by professional programmers and managed by international criminal organisations. The Convergence of Internet Security Threats looks at the methods and technology behind this blended virus/trojan/spam/phishing/ID theft/credit card fraud threat, various less-than-effective attempts to address it via legislation, technology, and press releases, and some suggestions for potentially effective legislation and other protective measures. For more details on AUUG 2006 visit http://new.auug.org.au/events_store/auug2006/ I look forward to seeing you at AUUG 2006! DavidP pp Adrian Close, President, AUUG Inc.
