The second international conference on practical cyber security OFFZONE 2019 will be held in Moscow on June 17-18, 2019 as part of Global Cyber Week. One of the key speakers of OFFZONE will be Alexander Matrosov, a well-known cybersecurity researcher.

Alexander is leading offensive studies of iron and firmware for NVIDIA’s main product lines. Wielding more than 20 years of research experience internationally, he has excelled in cybersecurity covering fields like reversing, analyzing the most complex malicious programs, developing operating methods for firmware, all the while bypassing security systems.

The evolution of security software has a direct correlation with the development of the modern spectrum of threats. If each new phase of evolution is aimed at closing gaps in methods of detection or algorithms for collecting and analyzing data about possible attacks, consequently, the main direction of development of complex threats, rootkits and, later, bootkits was evident from the very beginning — finding the most effective methods to counter the detection and long-term contamination of the system attacked. «The constant arms race in stamping digital signatures for OS kernel modules, reducing the accessibility to the kernel for developers and the widespread use of Secure Boot methods has led to a new evolution of threats,» — says Alexander Matrosov. — «Today there is a clear tendency on the part of the attacker, which is to persist to lower and lower levels in the system. And this displacement vector is actively shifting towards the hardware (Firmware / Hardware implants)».

In his report «The Evolution of Complex Threats: The Arms Race Between the Analyst and the Attacker» through the prism of the evolution of complex threats, Alexander will review the approaches to reverse analysis and forensics, and how they have changed recently, he will also cover black spots in defense systems, focusing on what needs to be improved to continue the race in the direction of breeding more effective protection.

If you are interested in giving a talk and presenting your research at OFFZONE 2019, you are welcome to apply to CFP before April 29, 2019.

Report formats

Talk: 45 minutes, presentation must be strictly in English, the talk itself may be in Russian or English.

Fasttrack: 15 minutes, presentation must be strictly in English, the talk itself may be in Russian or English.

Toolzone: exhibition stand for 4 hours, presentation is optional, the talk may be in Russian or English.

All applications are to be reviewed by the CFP-committee, which is comprised of: web-application and corporate system security experts; malware, low-level software and hardware researchers.