We are pleased to announce that RV4sec 2015 registration is now closed and we look forward to a great event! In the coming days we will provide some additional information about the conference to everyone registered.
There is a bit more time left to register for the training classes but act fast!
See you soon!
There are only a few days left to get tickets for RVAsec, and remember we will not be selling tickets at the door!
And if that’s not enough incentive to purchase your tickets right this second, and you still want to attend you better think about pulling the trigger soon as we are reaching our capacity for this year!
We do have plenty of space left for training and suggest you take advantage of this great opportunity to attend classes locally in Richmond at affordable prices!
What to expect at RVAsec:
Our everyday life depends on a stable and safe cyberspace. However, cybercrime threatens this arena and is one of the fastest growing areas of crime. Today almost every criminal, or civil, case has an element of electronic evidence.
However, protecting evidence of a crime takes different skill sets than performing an incident response. Understanding how to identify when an incident is now a potential litigation issue, and performing the proper methodology, is key to having the evidence admitted into court.
Join instructor, Gregory Bell, at his course as he will introduce you to computer forensics, both its fundamentals and the best practices for incident response. You will learn to understand the legal aspects of computer forensics, as well as its relationship to the Information Technology field. Hands-on projects will give you the tools and techniques you will use to perform a full computer forensic investigation.
For more information you can see the details here:
http://rvasec.com/integrating-forensics-ir/
Did you know you can transfer an RVAsec ticket to a co-worker or friend directly in Eventbrite?
Log in to your account and go to My Tickets (you may need to create an account using the email address you registered).
Then you can view your Current Orders (select RVAsec), and “Edit details” for the ticket. Changing the “Contact Information” will update the name of the person registered to check in at the conference. You can also change the questions asked at registration, which will help us plan for parking, catering and other items.
Also, please note that no refunds for training or the conference will be issued after May 26th.
Bit9 + Carbon Black provides the most complete solution against advanced threats that target organizations’ endpoints and servers, making it easier to see—and immediately stop—those threats. The company enables organizations to arm their endpoints by combining continuous, real-time visibility into what’s happening on every computer; real-time signature-less threat detection; incident response that combines a recorded history with live remediation; and prevention that is proactive and customizable.
Don’t have a ticket yet? Register now!
We are pleased to debut the RV4sec 2015 logo by 14-year-old @AylaMadison
Ayla started thinking about a theme for RV4sec before creating the logo and came up with the idea “Inside the Mind of the Hacker”. The mental state of a hacker, all the things that are on security people’s mind, and what they think about. A quote from Nightingale that says “You are now, and you do become, what you think about.”
The logo has a lot to it and we were really impressed by Ayla’s attention to detail. She has a bunch of tiny drawings of security gear and defense items from knights to ninjas to soldiers to cyberwarriors all jumbled into each other and represented as a bigger picture of a brain.
We hope you like the logo as much as we do, and find some time to check it out and even find some of the easter eggs!
We are pleased to welcome Symantec as a Hospitality Sponsor! All the food and drink served on Thursday will be sponsored by them, so be sure to stop by their table to say hi and thank them for feeding everyone!
We are pleased to welcome Capital One as a Hospitality Sponsor! All the food and drink served on Friday will be sponsored by them, so be sure to stop by their table and say hi and thank them for feeding everyone!
Paul Bruggeman from HackRVA provided us with an update on the badges!
Badge Design
The printed circuit board, or PCB, is the backbone of any circuit board. It supplies the physical strength and fundamental wiring for the board. It also determines the minimum size.
The circuit design artwork is 
drawn, usually with special software but hobbyists sometimes just draw them by hand. The gEDA software suite has a component called “pcb” that was used to draw the badge.
Badge Etching
The PCB board is fiberglass-reinforced epoxy laminated with a thin copper sheet which is etched away using ferric chloride to recreate the artwork.
One goal of this year’s badge was to use a professional process to cover the 
boards with the acid resist. Attempts last year worked but were not consistent.
Badge Cutting
Once the boards are etched they have to be cut down to final size. PCBs are tough material to cut.
The addition of a sheet metal cutter this year has made it much easier to do.
The steel blade is 1/2″ thick and the whole thing weighs 60 lbs!
Badge Parts
With the boards cut down, the next process is to put the surface mount parts on. Most of the 50+ parts are surface mount. This means they have no wires to solder, because they have metals pads that melt and attach when heated to 510F degrees.
The process of installing the parts is called “pick and place.” Not very 
complicated, but it can be tedious to do, especially 350 times!
Badge pick+place
First a solder paste containing thousands of beads of tin is drawn across a stencil that leaves the sticky grey paste where the parts will be placed. This stencil is etched copper foil. Stencils can also be plastic or steel.
The board then makes its way down the volunteer assembly line where parts 
are carefully placed on the solder paste. We have had the help of over a dozen HackRVA people so far this year.
Badge Cooking
The solder paste has to be melted or “re-flowed” to electrically connect the parts to the PCB. This currently is not very hi-tech: $20 donated ovens. A volunteer last year built a micro- controlled unit but the heating element died on it.
The manual ovens require attention. Failures are usually of the distracted 
human type. We had a board last year survive a 5-hour session underneath the oven, and it worked fine–though it looked like burnt toast!
Badge Wrap-up
The last things to go on are the hand- soldered parts: infrared transmitter and receiver, piezo buzzer, USB connector, USB detection wire, and the LCD panel.
If you plan on doing any software development we recommend the reset 
button option (red in picture) which can be soldered across the middle and far right pin on the lower center 5-pin programming header.
Design: Paul, Morgan
Electronics: Paul
Coordinator: Morgan
Etch: Paul, Jon, Aaron
Pick+place: Jon, John, Bill, John, Yijie, Sidney,
Thad, Tony (so far)
Do you know any local RVA companies that need security help? Whether they can’t afford to hire help, are a Non-Profit organization or something else, the RV4sec CTF team is here to help!
This year we are working with Bugcrowd to allow CTF participants the ability to give back to the community. The live bug hunting aspect will provide real organizations security testing so they can better understand and improve the security posture of their online presence.
Please help us spread the work that an organization can receive free security testing by signing up for the BugCrowd platform here:
https://tracker.
Once you signup please email us so we can help you through the next steps.
The testing will provide real world feedback on what an attacker would be able to see from the Internet, allowing you to understand what needs to be fixed.
If you have any questions please contact us to discuss!
This year’s CTF is being sponsored and brought to you by United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.
