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Hey all!

I’m back from Bali …. and it was an AWESOME CRAZY FUN CHUNTED trip! I am so going back for more…3 days 2 nights ain’t enough. There’s so much to be explored…the sea..the clubs..and *ahem* the girls..

I would ask you not to scroll further down for more pics ya. Cos they’re not ready yet! With my office work backlogged from last week piling on my table, cannot find time to filter out my 1700+ shots laa.  >.<

Only enough time to filter one pic of those lingerie models hehe.

Anyway, something else caught my attention when I came back and checked on the blog : A flashing Advertlets banner (which happens to be not flashing anymore now), and I clicked it. Hand itchy ma when I saw those little presents floating down the screen.

Then I was directed to the Hacker Halted Asia Pacific 2009 website.

Don’t be afraid of the banner lah. My blog’s not gona jump into your PC and destroy it.

Further reading led me to learn about the Hacker Halted Asia Pacific 2009 conference, a 4-day event from 10 November to 13 November, featuring a 2-Day Conference and a 2-Day Hands-on workshop.

One of its main objectives is to expose latest flaws in information security that affects the global community. Topics covered are various security issues plaguing the industry, and the different ways of protection and countermeasures in dealing with threats.

After some reading, I thought these guys were trying to sell some Antivirus.

Then I went to their FAQ section that had some writeup, and noticed something that made me go ‘Ooooh’:

We are the proud owners and developers of the world renowed “Certified Ethical Hacker – CEH” and Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator – CHFI” certification, among others.

OK, it’s not an Antivirus.

We are NSA/CNSS4011 Certified. We are vendor neutral and not business driven. We take into account on what the industry needs.

It’s not business driven? Then eat what? Grass ah? HAHA.

Our certification are required and implemented by many companies like JP Morgan Chase, Deloitte, IBM, Citibank, the CIA as well as the FIB amongst hundreds of other organizations.

That’s one helluva reference they have for their portfolio!

I’m actually quite embarrassed that I never heard of this organization before =.=

It also turns out that last year, they also had Hacker Halted Asia Pacific 2008, that attracted over 500 Information Technology Professionals from the Asia Pacific region and worldwide.

Pictures taken during Hacker Halted 2008 in KL

Where have I been all these while? LOL.

By then, I asked myself : Don’t I already have an Antivirus? I’m currently using Bit Defender Total Security. ‘Total’ ma, sounds quite powerful right.

And probably the least likely thing to happen would be an Antivirus company themselves getting hacked into, right?

Wrong! I surprised myself.

Apparently on July 20th, Kaspersky Malaysia had a ‘little’ trouble with their security….

They got freaking hacked!

Mr Eugene Kaspersky is so not gona be too happy about this.

This hack is believed to have used the “SQL injection” technique (which is one of the topics covered in Hacker Halted Asia Pacific 2009, Workshop 1 out of 4).

Kaspersky has one of the top security solutions in the world …… while hackers are prancing happily in their backyard. Damn char dou.

So the point is, if these guys can take out Kaspersky, imagine what they could do to us. Sure, we’re all ‘IT-savvy, blogg-y, facebook-y’ and stuff, but how many of us actually know much about hackers? I’m a jackass myself la wei..

So it’s quite an idea to check out the conference, especially if you have sensitive data like social security numbers, photocopies of your IC, Passport, Maybank Pin Numbers, and Secret Pictures saved in your PC. Unless you are Edison Chen, of course.

If you own a business, websites, or basically use forms of digital offline / online media, you are at risk of getting hacked.

At the event, you’ll also be able to catch world-famous international speakers from the information security industry, namely Howard Schmidt, Dr Hugh Thompson, Tim Pierson, Tom Bowers and amongst others, in the ambience of Hotel Nikko.

Click here for main Hacker Halted Asia Pacific 2009 page. Right click and save link as:

here to see full details on the agenda,
here for the registration form and
here for List of Workshops

Or join a simple contest here, (click ‘Contest’) to try to win an External Hard Disk / 16GB / 8GB Thumbdrive. (Hacking Software not included lol).

Hope to see you there!

Cheers!
-EVo-

P.s    My Bali pics are 90% done!!

P.P.s    MTV World Stage was one of the most Rocking concert I’ve ever been at or will ever be at!!  OMG!!