Security And Hacking Scene in London

Although London enjoys one of the most vibrant infosec industries in the world, there are not as many hacker and security events and one would think. Meetings-wise, we have organizations such as 2600, Defcon, and Owasp among others. However, the number of attendees needs to be improved. Usually, having a turnup of 20 people on one of these meetings is considered a success in London. Not much for such a big city if you think about it.

I've talked to a few people at some of these meetings regarding the reason why the sec scene is not that active in London. Most people agree: London has a very good infosec market where security professionals get paid very good salaries. Therefore, people don't find the need to participate in security-related activities outside work. Whatever the reason is, I can tell you this: when you like something too much, and there is not enough people to share the love for your passion, you do whatever it takes to meet other people with the same interest.

Either way I encourage you to attend these meetings if you are based in London. Last Tuesday, I presented "Cracking into embedded devices and beyond!". I recommend you to check it out if you are interested in embedded devices security. R. Marcos also gave a presentation titled "Blind SQL Injection: Optimization Techniques" which I found highly interesting although I'm not sure if the slides have been published yet.

Archived Comments

pdp

ap, 10x for putting this presentation together, it is really good...

fazed

I live in england and would love to go to one of these conventions but they aren't advertised enough..

Arkan Suleymanovic

Well, I'm a security professional living in working in London (not getting paid a very good salary though!) My only excuse is that usually we (me and colleagues) are too busy to attend.. We always talk about attending to OWASP and 2600 meetings and we even place it on our schedules but then when the day comes, it's always a client work or a deadline that gets the priority.. Still, we would like to join and will try our best to show up in Picadilly for the next 2600 meeting! Cheers, Arkan

Daniel

Having started the OWASP London chapter and sorted a few london meetings, I can tell you it's a damn hard job. The problem with london is that everyone is busy, and after a long day you often feel like going home and relaxing with the family/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend etc. It sucks, i wish it was more like the US side of things, but it's a price you pay for being in such an aggressive market

Adrian Pastor

@pdp - glad you like the slides :) . btw, I talked to R. Marcos yesterday and he said he'd send me the slides. I will add a link ASAP. @fazed - True they are not advertised enough. I think dc4420 got it right by sending posts to security mailing lists such as Full Disclosure. I think that really helps people remembering the next meeting date. @Arkan - you just missed the dc4420 drinking party yesterday!

Stephen

I'm currently studying in London and want to join in on these type of events, but I to find that they are not normally well advertised. Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong areas? Or I find out about them after they happened.

Paul Guckian

I agree that it is difficult to get the attention of the security community as they have the commerical challenges and priorities. Delaney Consulting have lined up some intermediate level security courses at weekends to try and address the work/life demands. I would be interested in coming along to your meetings...in my experience it can take a long time fo these groups to become popular and then bang, out of nowhere you've the other problem of not having enough room to fit them all. Keep up the good work.