Anyone who has seen me present or has been a student in my class is familiar with the matrix below. In fact, this matrix was the guiding principle for an entire conference session in Sweden 18 months ago and I’ve briefed on it least 300 times to thousands of people.

Now read this article:

SCOTLAND YARD has uncovered evidence that Al-Qaeda has been plotting to bring down the internet in Britain, causing chaos to business and the London Stock Exchange. Link —>

This is the beginning of what will be an interesting trend as some emergent terrorist cells push the boundaries and decide to engage in physical attacks on financial infrastructures. When you are in Nigeria all your targets look like oil pipelines, so when you are in London, what do you targets look like if your intention is to wage economic terrorism?

Richard Clarke even has a recent book where the founding premise is a series of attacks on the U.S. Internet infrastructure. It isn’t a bad read, even with the obvious Soxster = Mudge parallels.

And a not so decent write-up or our BlackHat Federal presentation. A few misconceptions that don’t track with the point we were trying to get across. However, this quote says a lot about the problem space. I hope that this attracts some attention and gets Tom Parker some support for the models he is working on.

“The inability to characterize is a vulnerability, and the ability to characterize is a deterrent,” because if you can characterize a threat, you can attribute it to an attacker, Devost said.

I’ll be speaking at Black Hat Federal on January 23-26, 2006.  If you are going to be in town for the event, let me know.  Conference site.

A wonderful evening in Istanbul…

To hold an event like this at the Palace, requires the approval of the Prime Minister.  The tables and open bars were actually set up outside the palace entrance, in a secured courtyard.  Lights were set up to set the mood and live Turkish music was performed throughout the evening.  We dined on wonderful Turkish food and due to the hospitality of our hosts, our drink glasses were never empty. For more information on the Palace, you can visit this site.

We’ve worked really hard to put together an annual conference on terrorism and homeland security entitled TRCcon. It will be held on Oct 1-3 in Washington, DC and brings together some of the most interesting speakers and topics in the industry. Hope to see you there!

For those attending BlackHat and/or Defcon, I will be speaking at both events. See the official sites for details. Look forward to running into lots of old friends.

I am currently on travel to Japan speaking on Cyberterrorism issues for Japanese government, business and academic organizations. The trip is sponsored by the State Department and part of their international speakers program. I’ve found the audiences to be very receptive to the topic. I was told that Japanese audiences wouldn’t ask questions, but I’ve had an hour of very topical questions following each of my presentations. This is also the first time that all of my presentations have required an interpreter, which is an interesting experience for me and certainly provides a sense of appreciation for the challenges of that job.

Walking through Tokyo is like stepping into a science fiction novel. The city just has a presence that you can’t avoid….it is everywhere. I am amazed to travel miles by subway, only to emerge to the same exact scenery every time. I’ve yet to see anyone over the age of 10 without a cell phone, yet none of mine will work in Japan due to the regulartory environment. I’ve finally branched out for Tokyo and will be spending two nights in Kyoto, which should give me a feel for an more traditional Japan city.

I will be delivering a keynote address at the Homeland Security Summit on March 6, 2003. More details

The latest TRC Training session will take place in Washington, DC. on January 8-10, 2003.

“This class led by nationally recognized terrorism experts including Brian Michael Jenkins, Walter Purdy, Matthew Devost, Tom Walsh, Neal Pollard, Bryan Vossekuil, Dr. Robert Fein, John Sullivan, Andrew Garfield, and special guests, will have numerous opportunities for Q&A. Participants will learn first hand about the current threats from both domestic and international terrorists. Participants will examine threats and the weapons terrorist could use against targets and measures to deter, defeat and mitigate these attacks. Participants will hear about how terrorist train and the �operational acts� they need to conduct to successfully conduct their attacks. Participants will examine the issue of �suicide bombers� and security for special events. Participants will hear from a special security representative regarding aviation security issues for law enforcement officers. Visit www.terrorism.com for details.

I’ve recently received an appointment as Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University to teach COSC511 “Information Warfare and Security”. This class was previously taught by Dorothy Denning and I am honored to take it over. If you are a student looking for the COSC511 page, you can find it by following this link.