One of the creators of the world’s first network firewall and the author of “Firewall and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker”, Bill Cheswick, will deliver a presentation at a cyber security conference in Abu Dhabi next month.

The third edition of Cyber Security for Energy & Utilities 2014 conference, to be organized by IQPC at The Westin, Abu Dhabi, will be held from March 23 to 26.

The event will gather cyber security experts from across the globe to UAE with a specific aim of preventing real-time threats and managing IT security challenges for SCADA/ICS systems, said a statement.

Cheswick will speak on “Re-thinking passwords and pins: Fix our weakening security”.

He said: “Authentication is pretty clearly broken. Though, we have examples of long-standing successes, there are reports of massive password data spills all the time. How might we get out of this situation? I propose some solutions or directions which may be of interest to the attendees.”

On being asked as to how the ICT industry is coping up with the challenges, he said:  “Badly. Though things in general are working (see, for example, the success in online banking), most institutions are vulnerable to espionage and external interference, despite best practices. Anything large enough to be called an "intranet" is probably out of control. I always find conferences like this to be a great place to learn new things and keep up with the latest problems and solutions. It is one of the great advantages of being invited, and I thank you. I expect that the attendees will have the same experience.”

The event will also host a variety of VIP dignitaries from major government and private organizations including oil and gas companies.

Dr  Jamal Al Hosani, official spokesman and director ICT, National Emergency Crisis & Disaster Management Authority, UAE, will inaugurate the event and also give a keynote speech on the evolution of critical infrastructure protection.

Lt. Col. Faisal Al Shammari, chief information security officer from Abu Dhabi Police will deliver the second keynote speech and address the important topic of cyber defence initiatives of strategy and implementation.

Don Codling, the former head of the Cyber Security Division of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will chair the event, conducting a full-day workshop on ICS control systems and cyber intelligence as well as speaking on a very interesting topic – “Real examples of ICS security breaches from the FBI. – TradeArabia News Service