Copyright 2004 Business Recorder 31 December, 2004 SECTION: IT & Computers HEADLINE: "Cyber security convention concludes." BYLINE: Press Release, issued by Pak Con. URL: BODY: "Our goal as an organisation is to explore all fields of information security technology in an innovative style with liberal attitude in a free-thinking environment. We intend to curb all the threats by developing a sound and effective information security plans. Our strategy is of a bold nature, instead of hiding our face from the reality of the situation, we are willing to confront all the dangers facing the IT community and provide them definite resolutions", said Pak-Con President Faiz Ahmad Shuja. He stated this while addressing the concluding session of Pak-Con 2004, first Cyber Security Convention. He said: "We deal exclusively in bringing into limelight the issues related with information security and creating their awareness among the IT community as well as the masses. The greatest cause of concern for the Pak-Con is the lack of focus and negligence towards information security issues in Pakistan in the IT sector at the higher levels. The mainstream media which has started to cover the activities of the IT sector to a great extent is still mute in giving appropriate coverage to computer security issues. This is the reason we have come forward to taking a dynamic step in order to fulfil all the inadequacies in the field of information security." Renowned security consultants and security professionals from various high profile organisations and security firms presented their papers, entertained, and bamboozled the audience with their talks on various aspects of the computer security. Speakers presented their materials on mobile and phone phreaking, denial of service attacks, defeating attacks, applied cryptography, e-commerce and cyber security laws of Pakistan, gathering network information of Pakistan and vulnerability assessment, writing secure applications in NET, the Pakistan honeynet project, fighting spam with honeypots, analysing threats to security, TCP/IP stack fingerprinting, and evolution of information security. The key-note speech was delivered by Javed Wadood, Country General Manager, Cybernet. Emmanuel Gadaix, who currently runs the Telecom Security Task Force, a specialised research firm focusing on GSM, GPRS and 3G/UMTS security in Southeast-Asia, spoke in detail on the past, present and future of telecommunications, highlighting and describing at length every aspect of phone and mobile security. Pak-Con President Faiz Ahmad Shuja talked on the Pakistan honeynet project, and explained methods to track-hackers and defeat their attacks. Other speakers, who presented at the convention, were Jawed A. Sarwana, Jamal Khan, Nizar Diamond Ali, Hammad Rajjaoub, Kamran Muzaffer, Raza-ur-Rehman, and Ayaz Ahmed Khan. Another highlight of the day was the on-going capture the Flag-Hacking Competition that stretched to more than five hours. Teams comprising students from universities participated in the five-hour-long contest, attacking their opponents' servers and defending theirs from exploits and attacks. In future, the Pak-Con will keep a arranging briefing, training, and competition sessions to raise information security awareness in Pakistan and keep nation updated with latest information security technologies. LANGUAGE: English