ACCU London

Thursday 18th October 2007, 19:00

Schalk Cronje: Bad Smells In Killer Apps

Software engineers tend to think of exploits and vulnerabilities in terms of buffer overflows, SQL injections and cross-site scripting. Although these techniques are vectors to achieving the goal, they are not the motivating factors in themselves.

Besides some of the technological issues, this talk takes a look at some of the sociological and human aspects of why certain technologies are so commonly exploited. By taking examples from software technologies that have changed our world forever, common technology traits are identified and it is shown how criminal campaigns are orchestrated around them.

Simultaneously light-hearted and serious, Schalk Cronje will show you why your next killer application might become a target for criminal minds.

About the Speaker

Schalk Cronje has been around computers ever since learning ZX81 BASIC in 1982 and typing in bytes of Z80 machine code by hand. After that humble start and his subsequent engineering degree he worked in industry on Windows, OS/2, Linux, Solaris and some embedded platforms mostly in C and C++. He can sometimes be found working on FLOSS projects, especially those related to the localisation of software into African languages.

He currently works in the UK office of one of the world's leading internet security and antivirus companies, where he has introduced advanced generative programming techniques as part of product development. He continually strives to improve the effectiveness of software development processes at all levels. Nowadays he leads advanced anti-spam technology research and provides thought leadership.