Description:
Personal privacy and the security of high sensitivity personal information is under attack every single day - whether from human error or malicious elements in our society with intent of personal gain at the expense of others. The introduction of security cameras on the street, transfer of manual systems to electronic infrastructures, plastic cards, RFID etc. etc. Where is all of this technology leading us and what can we do to adapt or protect ourselves - especially our privacy?
Have you ever wondered how extensive your personal "digital trail" really is? This presentation will provide you with an overview of the extent of the electronic bread crumbs we leave behind us every day - mostly unaware and with a degree of naiveté. This is especially true of the younger adopters of the latest and greatest technologies. They are technologically savvy but give little thought to the darker uses to which their gadgets can be put. It also gives an indication of why forensics is so successful in gathering the necessary information to prosecute miscreants. It looks at the extent of the databases scattered throughout government and private sector corporations and poses questions regarding the safety and security of people's personal information. The presenter looks into numerous aspects of what protections exist for your information and shows that it is minimal at best. It also reviews some of the possible repercussions of this lack of awareness and presents a few of the tools that are available to ferret out the supposedly hidden and forgotten items for family and friends.
Using himself as the object of his investigations, the presenter discovered content posted online from more than 10 years ago. The ease with which it is now possible to locate and assemble information with low cost or free tools proves that people need to be made aware of their responsibility to protect their personal information.
Speaker Bio:
Francois van Heerden
Cluster Security Officer
Information Management and Architecture Branch
Ministry of Community and Social Services
Francois van Heerden has worked in the private sector (RBC Capital Markets / Dundee Wealth Management) as a security consultant and public sector (Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Ministry of Government Services, and Ministry of Community and Social Services) in the information technology for over 25 years. He built his first computer - a Heathkit H89 and learned CP/M, Wordstar and Visicalc and while working for VIA Rail embarked on learning the earliest of the IBM PC technologies. Yes, he is sufficiently old to remember 8" floppy disks! He taught continuing education courses at Seneca College (WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, Introduction to PCs) and authored their first networking course.
He is currently the Cluster Security Officer with the Information Management and Architecture Branch, Ministry of Community and Social Services and responsible for providing security guidance for significant projects such as Ontario Works, the Family Responsibility Office, and the Ontario Disability Support Program. Francois is responsible for all aspects of security from developing policy guidance, security awareness, investigations, some aspects of business continuity and disaster recovery. He has deployed such tools as web content filtering (Websense), IDS / IPS (Sourcefire) and other enterprise level technologies . For the last ten years he has focused on the security environment and bringing security awareness to people in an entertaining and informative way. Francois has presented at Showcase Ontario on such topics as "Identity Theft", "Social Engineering: The Dark Art of Persuasion", "Threats on the Internet" and "Your Digital Trail" to audiences numbering up to 800. Francois is entirely self-educated in security: he challenged the CISSP exam and was successful on first writing.
On a personal note, Francois has been very busy doing presentations on astronomy at libraries, schools, and in the provincial parks (Algonquin, Sibbald Point, Balsam lake, and Port Burwell) for the International Year of Astronomy. He is engaged in learning astro-videography using his Celestron Nexstar 11" GPS and MallinCam and uses those tools for public education with his hobby.
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