If you're short on time, just read the last paragraph of this post!!
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I think everyone, and I literally mean everyone, who knows me, knows that network security is one of my main regions of interest in the field of computers. From the script-kiddie email phishing, to much more advanced exploits and network pen-testing, I've grown quite a bit in the field, since I first forayed into the field roughly eight years ago. The main source of information has been, of course, the World Wide Web, with its infinite amount of information, that satisfied my craving for knowledge. However, one thing I always despised was the large net-sec community in countries such as the US, Romania and even Iran, while the only well known Indian hacker was the script-kiddie Ankit F(r)a(u)dia (read more).
However in mid-2009, I heard of Null, a group of security enthusiasts who aimed to bring together all the net-sec enthusiasts in India, and share infomation (which is the most important foundation stones of Hacking). And it seemed to work. Null continued to grow, and as of now, has 3 chapters, in Bengaluru, Pune and Bhopal. But this wasn't of much help to me, since the closest among these three, Pune, was the short distance of 500 Kms away from me!! Grr!! However, I had the chance to see some of the members of Null in action, when they conducted a short workshop in my college. I was really impressed with the hands on approach these guys took.(They did a ARP poisoning on my college network right in front of our eyes!! That was awesome!!)
And then they dropped the bombshell on us all. They announced that they'd be organising a community driven security conference, Nullcon, right here in Goa. (I'd read this on their site the previous day, but was still excited when they announced it!!).
A few days later, the Nullcon site was up, and in big bold letters were the alphabets C-F-P. I instantly started writing a paper, and sent them the abstract of it, making sure I completed the whole process before my god forsaken sem exams began (read this). And one fine day, I logged into my mail ID, and lo and behold, there was a mail from NULL informing me that I'd been chosen as one of the speakers for NullCon!! W00t W00t W00t W00t!! Pretty soon, the site was updated with the list of speakers, and I was super-excited to see my name mentioned on the same page as gurus like Veysel Ozer and Prince Komal Boonlia!!
So long story short, NullCon is going to be held on 6th and 7th Feb 2010, at The Retreat By Zuri, in Salcete, Goa, and I'm going to be one of the speakers at the conference. You can check out the schedule of the event, and if you're interested in the talks, then please do register as a delegate for the conference. It's a huge learning experience, and a chance to meet the who's who in the Indian Net-sec community.
Hope to see you there....... Beware, Be There!!