OPCDE 2017 In Dubai To Bring Together Cyber Security Experts

OPCDE 2017, a cyber security conference in the Middle East, organized by Comae Technologies with the support of Dubai Electronic Security Center (a Dubai Government entity set up to safeguard electronic security in the Emirate), Noon.com, and others, will be held on April 26-27, 2017 at the Dubai Future Accelerator office in Dubai. In its inaugral edition, OPCDE (short for operational code) will host a panel of global expert speakers to provide insights and share latest research on cyber security, and claims to have a "zero commercial talk policy," with each presentation being reviewed by its review board. OPCDE says that even as cyber attacks are on a rise, there is a "significant shortage of technical talent" in the MENA region. With this in mind, the event wants to enable the knowledge transfer that can help in the creation of a regional technical community.

Writing in a Medium post about ten reasons to attend OPCDE 2017, Comae Technologies founder (and OPCDE organizer) Matt Suiche adds that the event stresses on technical knowledge transfer since "people do not learn anything from commercial exhibitions, and just experience extreme exhibition fatigue." He also notes that the conference has potential to support Dubai in its bold ambitions for the future. Set to take place across two days, bringing together 21 international researchers, and hosting 16 technical talks on cyber security, the conference aims to share insights that can benefit technical professionals including software engineers, network security specialists, security advisors, CTO/CIOs and others, with Dell Secure works, TrendMicro, and IOActive being a few global entities partnering the event.

A few cyber security topics part of the event's agenda include attacks against digital wallets, Windows OS archaeology, supply chain software attacks, and others. Speakers set to be a part of the event are Maarten Van Horenbeeck, Vice President - Security Engineering, Fastly, Wim Remes, Chairman of the Board, (ISC)2, and Oleksandr Bazhaniuk, security engineer, Intel among many others. For attendees, one of the key highlights of the event is expected to be a talk by Bazhaniuk on ways to detect the CIA implants part of the recent Wikileaks Vault 7 disclosures.

Not just that, besides hearing from some of top global minds in cyber security, the event also aims to encourage and foster youth talent in the field with the UAE National Cyber Security Capture The Flag (CTF) cyber security competition. Providing cash prizes and tickets to attend OPCDE for the winners, the competition features challenges in different categories like reverse engineering, web security, digital forensics, network security and others. Details of the challenges, timelines and eligibility criteria can be found here.

Related: Combating Cyber Crime: Your Company Needs To Be Resilient