Yesterday a local branch of DT crashed

It was normal day without services since T-HT (local branch of Deutsche Telecom) crashed it is not yet officially announced what was root cause, but whatever was it was surely supported with poor state of system.

It was a frantic day for most of users since phones were off mobile and landlines both, most of the emergency services were cut off, bank networks, infrastructure. 

Looks like there are some side effects since other providers get some problems too, probaly side attacks etc. 

It is more for public concern since T-HT effectively is a monopoly on Croatian market. It nicely shows what incompetent politics, corruption, bad practices, low quality cause .. I forget to mention that we here have one of the most expensive and worst quality IT service in Europe. 

Whole story about  THT being sold looks like a selling Manhattan for a bottle of rum, and now bottle is empty. It is same colonial approach so typical for Balkan states.

FSEC2015 finished today

Today it was a vendor day. Yesterday I had my 30 minutes of hate presentation, today we were deep underground safe and among other vendors showing our products ... Beautiful things capable od doing everything in security, just as all others.
It was in students cafe, probably an ex dungeon, remember me on that utp korbach picture, There were some rumors about it has being used there. It was so dark that I've managed to spill my cola and create terrible disaster.

Other vendors had beautiful female team members we had our ladies just on movie presentation. I found that more humane approach  than forcing girls to be in smart  business dress and high stilettos for hours, its unfair since everyone else in team are having comfy sneakers. I simply can't imagine sysadmins wearing high heels even in most gender challenged situations.

FSEC2015 was Ok, a lot of different topics, almost from conspiracy theories, hate presentations (me), business audit models, open BSD improvements, secure coding and some good references in key note speaker about what computing science is, about grammar, proofs ... today in security business practically unknown science.

Perfect autumn day

I'm just having a perfect day, in countryside. It  is magnificent day, sunny but mild, calm, beautiful golden light with that almost eternal bright quality Even got a bees and wasp buzzing around.

My few days of vacation is coming to end soon, I'm thinking about next things to do.
It will be busy time, looks like some business trips to be mixed in I don't know how it will be mixed with lectures and preparations. For my forensic lectures I decided to put stress on Linux and scripting in python,  with stress on theory introduced in books by Farmner and Venena also in Carrier book. I found that this computing theory thing is missing from my students. It is missing  also traditional digital forensics literature is not stressing it enough, there is not enough computers sconce making it look like pure heuristics.


I was too much thinking on digital forensics based on how law enforcement and legal see it, but not on how engineer and scientist have to see it. This was mistake but easy to correct.


For Linux there is plenty of material collected for last Linux forensics training I've done so a homework will be to put all that into one wrap suitable for students. Platform will be SANS workstation in virtual environment.

Also I think I'll add some additional graduation thesis tasks, especially in doing some CFE engine forensic modifications. If we manage target will be to design CFE agent with forensically sound rules and configurations for smartphones mainly for android.

Why I hate digital forensics ...

This  is actually a working title of one lecture I'm preparing for next Monday, on FSEC2015. about 30 minutes a hate story,  hopefully a passionate story :). We got invitation on very short notice in very busy period for us and title just pop up.
Actually there is a lot of thing worth mentioning and discussing in digital forensics loudly,
a lot of very good articles and talks recently about problems and things which are well know but not well enough spoken.
I was attending ERA conference in Riga recently where Stephen Mason out some unexpected questions but very logical about essence of admissibility and reliability of digital forensic tools.
In the same path but more technical is excellent NIST Workshop on Mobile Forensics.

I'll summarize and ask about definitions, meanings , community, tools, procedures, and other interesting questions worth hating what can fit into 30 minutes of fast talk.
Lecture will be about digital forensics and its

• naming  real name has power, remember Lord of the Rings
• tools and practices,
• community, 
• practitioners, 
• standards and definitions,
• trainings, certificates, curriculums
• people using its results, 
• sub-fields, 
• relations with other computing science fields 

I've just uploaded draft on slideshare if anyone like to have pre-look and prepare ammunition.