I was almost about to miss this event! But somehow got up from the bed early enough in the morning to make it on time. I had returned home late from Bangalore as my flight got delayed by an hour. Reached home at around midnight and had to catch a 5am bus to Pune to reach there on time. I was very tired to get up at 4 am and get ready but somehow managed to do it and reached there on time :) With topics like Hacking one’s Firefox to steal his web secrets, Mining Digital Evidence in Microsoft Windows, 7 years of Indian IT act , etc and an opportunity to meet and network with some of the best Indian Hackers, this was an event not worth missing. This event was organized by Rohit Srivastwa. a renowned cyber security specialist. The speakers / topic of talks / venue / delegates .. everything was too good. I had gone with my ex- Katalyst colleague Ameya

The event started with Rohit introducing all the speakers of the event. The first talk that I attended was Sunil Arora on Backdoor 2.0: Hacking Firefox to steal his web secrets. He showed in detail about techniques to write a malware for Firefox to steal a victim’s web secrets like username, password, credit card number etc. He also talked about the recently discovered vulnerabilities in Firefox and how one can exploit them to push the malware to victim’s Firefox remotely. The session was very informative.

The next session was by Chetan Gupta on Mining Digital Evidence in Microsoft Windows. He showed us how forensic analysis was done on Windows system and how the cyber crime sleuths are able to recover all th details from a system at the time of investigation. Chetan Gupta is a very well known security expert working with Symantec Corporation and the best part was his introduction. He had almost a dozen security certificates under his belt. So, it took like almost 5 minutes to complete his introduction by the comparer and everyone started clapping soon after his intro. I am pasting a part of it here.

Chetan Gupta is a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Sciences from AIUMT, USA and has done his Masters of Science in Computer Networks. He has vast experience in the field of Information Security with a focus on the domain of penetration testing and digital forensics. He is well-versed with the Incident response and Computer Forensics standards and methodology, has a good understanding of the Cyber law & has led teams on Computer Forensic assignments for many multinational clients. He has also conducted penetration tests and risk assessment exercises for a multitude of international clients. Chetan Gupta is an Encase Certified Examiner (EnCE), SANS GIAC Certified Forensics Analyst (GCFA), SANS GIAC Certified Intrusion Analyst (GCIA), Master in Computer Forensics (US), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), CIW Certified Security Associate and Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA).

phew…
The next talk was one of the most interesting one by Rohas Nagpal who is the President of the Asian School of Cyber Law. where he talked about the 7 most prominent cyber crime cases in India including the controversial Avnish Bajaj case of Baazee.com. There was so much to learn about the Indian IT act from him. Most of the things that I was not aware of. He also talked about piracy, pornography, etc.

Then headed for lunch break and attended sessions on Crazy Toaster: Can Home Devices turn against us? and Hacking Web 2.0 and then headed for the panel discussion with Cyber Crime Lawyers, Hackers and Cops. This was the most impressive discussion on Cyber Crimes, powerful Indian laws and the security. I cleared many of my doubts which were never cleared by anyone.

Overall an amazing event. Headed back to Bombay soon after the event.
Looking forward to be a part of ClubHACK2008 !