In the 1990s the information security (infosec) community was not what it is today is such an obvious statement that it shouldn’t be used to start any abstract. However, if we further qualify and describe more precisely all the different aspects in which the 1990s and today’s infosec communities differ, the way academia, industry and practitioners evolved over time, the co-evolution of security attacks & defenses, and the fundamental problems that remain unsolved, we may start to have the outline of an interesting talk. Having spent almost 30 years in the field, Ivan intends to provide his insights — opinions informed by experience — about the information security discipline and its young history: Where we are, how did we get here, and what we could look for in the future of our field. If you are interested in a career in infosec this may be a good opportunity to hear the perspective of a veteran in the field. This will not be a technical talk and it will not be narrowly focused on a specific topic but the speaker will not shy away from technical discussion.
Iván Arce is Chief Technology Office (CTO) at Quarkslab, a french information security company specialized in high value-added security consulting services and products. Ivan is responsible for integrating the company’s security analysis know-how into Quark Flow, Quarkslab’s scalable security analysis platform. Prior to joining Quarkslab, Arce created and lead “Programa STIC” (Security in ICT Program) at Fundación Sadosky, a non-for-profit organization of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Argentina. Before joining Fundación Sadosky, Arce co-founded Core Security Technologies, an infosec company from Argentina, where he worked for 16 years in multiple roles, ranging from security consultant and software developer, to director of security consulting services, VP of Engineering and CTO. During his tenure at Core Security, the company grew from a team of 5 security consultants to a services and products company with over a hundred employees that created and popularized a new market segment (penetration testing software), pioneered industry-lead vulnerability and exploit research & disclosure, and serviced thousands of customers worldwide. Prior to founding Core Security, he worked at a computer telephony integration startup while studying Electronic Engineering at University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Iván was a founding editorial board member of the IEEE Security & Privacy magazine, co-editor of the Attack Trends department for ~10 years, and co-founder of the IEEE Center for Secure Design. He is author of numerous articles and papers and a frequent speaker at infosec industry and practitioner conferences.