“NULLCON: The neXt security thing!
Asia’s Premier Information Security Conference, Training & Exhibition platform for security & privacy practitioners, executives, academia, organizations …”
As a security enthusiast when you see that you want to be a part of that action. You want to know what’s new, what’s trending, tips and tricks to manage security, offensive or defensive. As a non-techie to attend an event with approx 2000 people associated with security in some way or the other you expect to be bowled over by the “cool” things you are going to encounter.
The event was organized in Goa in one of the premium convention centers. There was a hall of exhibition with stalls where organizational representatives were talking about their products that included online security courses, cloud based software that could protect your systems and servers from being attacked. Some of the stalls were empty with just the banners of their organizations or LED screens with their names on it which had turned blue due to no one being around for a long time. While two people exactly spoke to me about their organizations and their work, the rest were simply not interested as soon as they heard Civil Society Organization.
I also went to some of the volunteers to get some recommendations about any kind of social tech/ tools/ people who may have some sessions of on security for common people. One of the lady suggested that I attend the sessions scheduled on the last day which was mostly meant for journalists. Since I was already there, I decided to attend a few sessions that were on various topics ranging from Cyberspace and Sovereignty to Internet shutdowns in India to understand the perspective of the security community towards what they understand as a problem which was mostly application and cloud based.
When I saw so many curious minds working in teams towards solving a bug bounty or hack into someone’s WiFi, I cannot help but think what if we could also use this platform to raise problem statements from the development sector and provide that opportunity as well to the techies who may be inclined that way. When you have a platform like NULLCON, I believe it can be used to add a social aspect to the event.
The last day of Rootconf was meant for journalists and human rights defenders and some sessions were quite useful. However as an info-activist, a term I like to label myself with, I would definitely say that I was expecting more- More people in love with security, more community members who were conscious of the impact their community has on the world rather than individually.
I hope next year NULLCON may be interested to explore extending their platform to include Civil Society Organization members from the grassroots to understand their security related problems in real time and can find solutions to help communities be safer and more aware online.