DEARBORN – InfraGard shared the excitement along with several hundred security professionals for the two-day SecureWorld conference held this year in Dearborn at the Ford Conference and Event Center. Opening keynoter Jason Witty, Vice President, Security Services, LaSalle Bank covered the State of the Internet.

The State of the Internet, in a nutshell, is dangerous. He outlined the technologies and techniques now being employed not by hackers that are out to establish a reputation and gain fame and notoriety, but by groups of criminals that are completely profit motivated. The tools being used by criminals have reached new peaks of sophistication and ease of use, and the networks of zombies or bots that can be controlled for various exploits number in the millions and rival the strength of the biggest supercomputers and grid computing systems.

He covered market sites operating much like ebay, but selling zero day exploits before they are patched by security firms or software companies. The broader the vulnerability and the more control it affords, the higher the price becomes.

He also covered tools used by the ethical hacking community, such as Back / Track, and how the tools are rapidly gaining popularity amongst the black hats as well because of their completeness and ease of use.

Prior to the keynote, Michigan InfraGard held their member meeting for existing members and current applicants, addressed by Special Agent in Charge Andrew Arena. Later, InfraGard also sponsored Greg Garcia at a keynote breakfast, discussing IT Sector-Specific Plan Development and Implementation.

There were two days of sessions covering a broad range of topics: google hacking, defending Ajax & web 2.0, fighting ID theft and credit card fraud, impact of identity theft controls on business, physical security, administrator hacking tools, why phishing works, forensics 101, virtualization security, VoIP security and more.

With the rapid changes in technology on so many fronts, keeping up with the security issues that crop up immediately after deployment of new technology takes time and effort. The Secure World Detroit Conference provided an amazing amount of current and relevant content to help those attending keep up with the ever changing issues confronting IT security professionals today.

For more information, click on SecureWorldExpo.Com

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