[NTLUG:Discuss] LTG at Alamo Drafthouse, Jan 11

[Christopher Baker]

Subject: [Announce] LTG at Alamo Drafthouse, Jan 11
Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2002 19:21:45 -0600
From: pxn <paco at linuxtopgun.org>
To: announce at linuxtopgun.org


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

11 Dec 2002

         "LinuxTopGun"
         Saturday, January 11, 2003, 7pm - 11pm
         Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
         409 Colorado - Austin, Texas
         open to the public * free admission

Symbiot Security, in cooperation with Alamo Drafthouse Cinema,
presents the next "LinuxTopGun" event (LTG) -- a computer network
security competition -- on Saturday, January 11th 2003, from 7pm to
11pm at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown in Austin, Texas.  Co-sponsors
include Austin Community College and SXSW Interactive.  Admission is
free and open to the public.  See www.linuxtopgun.org for details.

During an LTG event, teams take turn defending a GNU/Linux web server
while other teams attack, and VJs and DJs mix to accompany the
competition.  Expert judges score points for how effectively teams
keep the server available and for how well the teams answer audience
questions.  The top teams win prizes and the winning team advances to
the next round of the world network defense competition.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema -- voted "Best Theater in Austin" by Austin
American Statesman, Citysearch, Entertainment Weekly, and the Austin
Chronicle -- serves dinner and drinks in a comfortable theater setting
which features digital video and free wireless access.  LTG uses video
to show how network attacks happen.  Powered by the "Salvation"
visualization platform from Trancendental Software, this video
animation includes features for chat and comments by the audience --
using wireless devices, shown on the big screen.  Also assisting with
the event will be models from Hot-Tool Fashion Crew and counselors
from Geek Services of Austin.

The January competition is a local preliminary leading up to regional
semi-finals at SXSW Interactive Festival on March 7th, 2003 in Austin.
According to Hugh Forrest, director of SXSW Interactive, "LinuxTopGun
covers the very important issue of network security in a fun,
informal, and inclusive setting."  Judges for the March competition
include author Simson Garfinkel -- an expert in computer security,
privacy, and the social impact of technology, and Kem McClelland -- an
expert in legal and commercial aspects of wireless network
technologies and one of the founders of Wayport, Inc.  Other regional
LTG events are scheduled throughout the coming year, leading into
finals held in New York City next December, where the top six network
security teams in North America will compete for the top prize.

During the most recent LTG, held at Mojo's Daily Grind on Oct 11th,
"Team WireTap" (Brian Gannon, Dan Pennington) placed first among six
contenders, edging out "Team Austin 2600" by a narrow margin -- in an
intense 4-hour marathon which logged over 500 attacks per minute.  A
rematch is expected for January, joined by contenders from throughout
the Southwest region.  Advent Networks, an Austin-based provider of
dedicated bandwidth solutions for cable operators, sponsored "Team
WireTap" with their equipment, including 1.2Ghz Dell laptops.

In a previous event, on Sep 6th, one of the most damaging attacks
involved an OpenSSL vulnerability -- foreshadowing headlines five days
later as the infamous "Slapper" worm spread throughout the Internet
using a similar exploit [ see www.f-secure.com/slapper/ ].  Similarly,
the event on Oct 11th previewed a "Denial Of Service" mechanism to
disrupt services such as email.  It is believed that most servers on
the Internet are not currently fortified against this attack.

Teams participating and the audience attending LTG events have
remarked about what can be learned through network security
competitions.  Jerry Haba, director of the High-Tech Institute at
Austin Community College Continuing Education, explains: "We would
like to establish ACC CE as a leader in network security training --
both with formal classroom and online course and also with the more
intense, hands-on LTG competition.  I'm not sure we are yet in the
business of predicting the next Internet vulnerabilities, but we
certainly are in the business of preparing individuals to cope with
and neutralize them."

As a leader in computer crime investigation and forensic analysis,
Symbiot Security, a founding sponsor of LTG, provides the network
architecture and operations required for the high-performance computer
attack environment at LTG.  Symbiot also publishes summary analysis
of strategies used in the event.  For more information visit
www.symbiot.com.


CONTACT INFORMATION: +1-512-421-4300 or info at linuxtopgun.org

http://www.linuxtopgun.org/
http://www.symbiot.com/


===========================================================
"This Christmas season does something to us inside. It sets us on our
feet and gives us a cue as to the way we should go. Our part is to
carry on from there, to carry this spirit which comes to us at this
season into the rest of the year. Then it may be said of us, as Dickens
remarked of one of his characters, 'It was always said of him, that he
knew how to keep Christmas very well.'" --Edmund Opitz
===========================================================
Chris Baker -- www.chrisbaker.net
chris at chrisbaker.net, chrisbaker at iname.com, cbaker2 at columbus.rr.com
"When you stop growing, you start dying."