RE: Conferences...

["Balwant Rathore" <balwant () oissg org>]

Dear List members,

Some of the respectable and well known security conferences/events are as
folows:
Black Hat Briefings, http://www.blackhat.com
DEF CON, http://www.defcon.org
CanSecWest, http://www.cansecwest.com
HEX2005, http://www.hex2005.org
CCC Camp, http://www.ccc.de/camp/
ToorCon, http://www.toorcon.org
SummerCon, http://www.summercon.org
Ruxcon, www.Ruxcon.org
Hackinthebox, www.hackinthebox.org/
ISETROM, www.isestorm.org, it's happening right now, OCTOBER 16-23 2004, LAS
VEGAS, NV, USA.

All are good conferences/events but paid. Many professionals can't afford
them and also they need hands on practice to hone skills into information
security which many of the above written conferences don't provide (I agree
they do have their own objective and motives). We at OISSG (A registered
Non-profit organization) have taken initiative to spread information
security awareness and organizing free security conferences named "First
Improvised Security Testing (FIST) Conference. We have organized these
conferences in many cities of world and trying very hard to organize it in
15 countries for 2004, contact me if you are interested to organize in your
area and for more details. 

Recently we have organized a complete hands-on workshop in Delhi India for 2
weeks and it was absolutely free. Check this for more detail:
http://www.oissg.org/fist/May2004Delhi/FIST-Conference%20Delhi.pdf

If you are interested to organize a conference in your city and/or want to
participate, you can contact me.

Presentations of our previous conferences are available here:
http://www.oissg.org/component/option,com_briefings/Itemid,54/

FAQ about conference:
http://www.oissg.org/Data/FIST/fist-faq.htm

Apart form conferences; we have our local chapters in many cities all over
the globe, any security enthusiast can join them for free.

If you want to join or want to start a chapter in your city, you can me.
Here is more detail about our chapters:
http://www.oissg.org/component/option,com_chapters


Thanking you.
Respectfully,

--Balwant 

Balwant Rathore, CISSP
President,
Open Information System Security Group
www.oissg.org