HITBSecConf - Dubai brings leading security specialists to the UAE

The highly anticipated event, which makes its second appearance in this region, is expected to attract over 300 attendees from around the EMEA region and will offer two keynote addresses in addition to 20 deep-knowledge technical presentations by some of the world's leading security experts.

Five hands-on technical training tracks have been confirmed and will be conducted during the first two days (14-15 April) of the event. The five technical training tracks will cover topics such as Application Hacking 2.0 - Advanced Attacks and Defense; Bluetooth & Wireless Hacking; Structured Network Threat Analysis and Forensics; Telecommunication Fraud; and Hacking and Hardening Oracle Databases.

The dual-track conference on the 16 and 17th April will be graced by the presence of His Excellency Mohammed Nasser Al-Ghanim, Director General of the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). The keynote speakers for the event will be prominent cryptologist and Founder of BTCounterpane, Bruce Schneier and Jeremiah Grossman, Founder & CTO of White Hat Security.

'Over the years, HITBSecConf has grown from strength to strength, and is now widely regarded as the most authoritative and popular network security conference in Asia as well as the Middle East,' said Dhillon Andrew Kannabhiran, Founder and CEO of Hack In The Box (M) Sdn Bhd, organizer of the HITBSecConf series.

'Our overwhelming success in organizing the first conference in Dubai last year is due to the support from the worldwide network security fraternity, our sponsors, attendees and especially the endorsement from the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority,' he added.

Additionally, the event organizer will be offering two hacking competitions and an online multiplayer game for participants to pit their skills against each other. The Capture The Flag (CTF) competition will see teams attempting to attack opposing teams' servers as well as defending their own machines from attack. Points will be awarded for every successful attack and defense strategy.

The Zone-H/HITB Hacking Challenge, meanwhile, is a 6-level web-based hack game where participants will be challenged to try to complete all levels in the shortest possible time.

HITBSecConf2008 - Dubai will also play host to a BZFlag competition organized by the US Army. BZFlag is a free online multiplayer cross-platform open source 3D tank game. The name originates from 'Battle Zone capture the Flag' and is one of the most popular open source games ever developed.

Apart from the conference in Dubai, which serves the EMEA region, HITBSecConf is also held annually in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to cater to the Asian region. Previous years' conferences have made international IT news headlines with coverage from a host of local and international print as well as broadcast media including the likes of IDG, Reuters, BBC Radio, The Star, The New Straits Times and BBC Television's Click!
Online.