Ethical Hacking

Peter Wood FBCS CITP MIMIS MIEEE, Chief of Operations - First Base Technologies

Wednesday 8th December 2004, 6:30 pm (refreshments available from 6:10 pm)

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society, 36 York Place, Edinburgh EH1 3HU (street map)

Hackers are becoming more organised and professional, and their results more successful. Their methods and tool sets have been available for study for some time. Peter Wood has developed a set of methodologies to simulate hacker attacks, both external and internal. He shares his experiences in perpetrating licensed attacks against a variety of clients over the last year, as well as the results of criminal investigations. His methods and recommendations should prove invaluable to any business.

Seminar Outline

What hackers know about you – their methods with real-life examples
- Foot-printing
- Network enumeration
- Scanning
- Operating system enumeration
- Hacking Windows NT
Case studies – some real-world examples of hacker incidents and how they were handled
- Dial-in and remote access attacks
- Physical intrusions
- Trojan and snooping attacks
- Web server hacks
Pro-active defensive strategy – how to protect yourself from the majority of attackers

What You Will Learn

What hacking is really about
How to avoid the most common mistakes which hackers exploit
How to implement a realistic strategy to defend your organisation

About the speaker

Peter Wood’s innovative and entertaining style has led him to present to the boards of the largest international companies as well as at international conferences on many IT security-related topics. He was recently rated the British Computer Society’s number one speaker.

Peter has worked in the electronics and computer industries since 1969. He has extensive experience of international communications and networking, with hands-on experience of many large-scale systems. Peter’s board-level responsibilities have included sales, marketing and technical roles, giving him a broad industry view.

Founded in May 1989 as a vendor-independent consultancy, First Base Technologies now provides information security and audit services to clients such as B&Q, Co-operative Group, Bradford & Bingley, GKN, Marie Curie, Natural History Museum and Science Museum, Taylor Woodrow, and United News & Media. Peter has hands-on technical involvement in the firm on a daily basis, working in areas as diverse as network security reviews, firewall penetration testing and policy and procedures.

Peter is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association and the Association of Computing Machinery. He is also a BCS Registered Security Consultant, a Microsoft Certified Product Specialist and a member of Mensa.

Recent presentations

The Insider Threat (Cyprus Infosec 2003 and COSAC 2002, Ireland)
Web application hacking – “exposing your backend” (Cyprus Infosec 2003)
Casebook of an Ethical Hacker (COSAC 2001, Ireland)
Counting the Cost - Reputations Online (Keynote, BCS ISSG Annual Conference, 2003)
Windows 2000 Security (British Computer Society, 2001, London)
Implementing BS 7799 (BSI-DISC national seminars, 1998-2001)

Audiences have benefited from increased awareness of these topics, as well as discovering how to apply changing technology to their industries. This type of presentation is excellent PR for the organiser and helps establish a professional approach to change management.