Debate: "Private Companies Should Be Authorized To Take Measured Offensive Action Against Attackers"

On Feb. 8-9, 2013, up to 100 people including some of the world's leading experts in law, incident response, reverse-engineering and intelligence will meet in Washington DC to debate the topic: "Private Companies should be Authorized to take Measured Offensive Actions against Attackers". The list of speakers includes CrowdStrike's Dmitri Alperovich, Mandiant's Richard Bejtlich, Microsoft's Dave Aucsmith, Dambala Labs' Gunter Ollmann, CrySys Labs' Boldi Bencsath, ReVuln's Donato Ferrante, INTERPOL's new Digital Crime Center's director, the ITU's Marco Obiso, The Grugq, The Jester, and many more.

The Agenda of Suits and Spooks DC will feature the most intriguing panel discussions every held on the highly controversial issue of "striking back" at those responsible for cyber attacks as well as how offensive markets for malware are changing the world of vulnerability exploits. The second day will include breakout sessions as well as an afternoon debate between two teams consisting of 12 volunteers from our attendees along with time for research and strategizing over a working lunch.


Friday, February 8, 2013 - Waterview Conference Center



9:00am - Registration and Continental Breakfast
9:45am - Welcome and Briefing on the Day's Activities
10:00am - 12:00pm: Panel Discussion - Offensive Tactics and Takedowns by Security Vendors
Featuring Mr. Dmitri Alperovich (CTO and Co-Founder, Crowdstrike), Mr. Richard Bejtlich (CSO, Mandiant), Mr. David Aucsmith (Sr. Director, Microsoft Institute of Advanced Technologies for Governments), and Mr. Nick Selby (Police Officer, DFW Area Department of Public Safety; Partner, Enterprise Security at N4Struct, Inc.).
12:00pm - 1:00pm: How Duqu, Flame, Gauss, and Shamoon can be reconfigured and reused against different victims
Featuring Dr. Boldizsár “Boldi” Bencsáth (Associate Professor, Laboratory of Cryptography and Systems Security (CrySyS), Department of Telecommunications, Budapest University of Technology and Economics)
1:00pm - 1:45pm LUNCH (provided on-site)
1:45pm - 3:45pm: Panel Discussion - Finding Exploitable Loopholes in the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and International Law for Offensive Actions in Cyberspace
Featuring Dr. Catherine Lotrionte (Director of the Institute for Law, Science + Global Security, Georgetown University),  Mr. Stewart A. Baker (Partner, Steptoe & Johnson), Mr. Frank J. Cilluffo, Director, Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, and Mr. Marco Obiso (Cybersecurity Coordinator, International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
3:45pm - 4:00pm BREAK
4:00pm-6:00pm: Panel Discussion - Offensive Markets for Vulnerability Research - Pros and Cons
Featuring Mr. Donato Ferrante (Co-Founder and Security Researcher, ReVuln), The Grugq (a security engineer who specializes in reverse-engineering and anti-forensics), Mr. Gunter Ollmann (Chief Technology Officer, Damballa Labs)

Saturday, February 9, 2013 - Waterview Conference Center

9:00am Continental Breakfast
9:30am Welcome and Briefing on the Day's Activities
9:45am - 10:45am (Classroom A): Calculating The Adversary's Return-On-Investment and How That Can Inform Defense
Featuring Mr. Josh Corman (Director of Security Intelligence, Akamai)  and Mr. David Etue (Vice President, Corporate Development Strategy at SafeNet)
9:45am - 10:45am: (Classroom B): (topic to be announced)
Featuring Mr. Spencer Wilcox (Lead Security Strategist and Special Assistant to the Vice President of Corporate and Information Security Services for Exelon Corporation)
9:45am - 10:45am: (Classroom C): Q&A with The Jester via IRC "Is Offense The Best Defense, and Who Should Conduct It?"
This will be a moderated discussion with The Jester via IRC chat. Attendees will be able to pass their questions to the moderator and The Jester will respond in real-time.
 10:45am - 12:45pm: What's the Downside of Private Sector Offensive Engagement?
Featuring Dr. Anup Ghosh (Founder and CEO at Invincea), Mr. Jeffrey Carr (Founder and CEO, Taia Global, Inc.), Mr. Gunter Ollmann (Chief Technology Officer, Damballa Labs), and Mr. Josh Corman (Director of Security Intelligence, Akamai)
12:45pm-2:00pm: Working Lunch
12 attendees will volunteer to debate the proposition (6 per team). The working lunch will be spent dividing into teams and assisting the debaters in preparing research and debate strategies.
2:00pm - 3:30pm: Debate the Proposition "Private Companies Should be Authorized to Take Measured Offensive Actions Against Attackers"
The debate will be judged by a panel of 5 of our speakers
3:30pm - Closing Remarks


The Waterview Conference Center is one of Washington D.C.'s most beautiful and exclusive facilities but it has a capacity of only 100 people so don't miss out. Register today and be a part of one of 2013's most important events.

We are also still looking for companies to join Basis Technology in sponsoring this important event. Please contact me for more information.

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