Fernando Gont to discuss IPv6 security at PHDays 8

Just days remain until the end of the Call for Papers! The program committee has already selected the first group of speakers for technical talks, and in early March we announced the key speaker Ilfak Guilfanov. If you're excited about the chance to speak from the same podium, don't delay—the deadline to submit your proposal is March 31. In the meantime, we'd like to present another big name who will be addressing PHDays 8.

SI6 Networks security consultant and researcher Fernando Gont will be taking the stage at this year's forum. Specializing in research on the security of data protocols, he has worked with companies and governments all over the world. He has contributed to implementation of projects for the British National Infrastructure Security Coordination Centre (NISCC) and Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI). He has created recommendations for network engineers and implementers of the TCP/IP protocol suite and was the first to perform a thorough security assessment of the IPv6 protocol suite.

Gont's upcoming talk at PHDays is entitled “IPv6 security: How did we get here?”

The whole world is transitioning to IPv6, a new version of the Internet Protocol (IP) that has been developed to better meet the current and future needs of the Internet. It has already been deployed by major content providers (Google, Facebook) and a number of major ISPs. Many companies plan to deploy IPv6 in the coming years.

IPv6 is intended to solve IPv4's problem of address exhaustion by using a longer 128-bit address length. Although IPv6 and IPv4 are both designed to transfer packets over a network, major differences between the two protocols and how they interact can cause serious security issues.

Security experts have raised the alarm about a sharp increase in the number of network attacks making use of known vulnerabilities in IPv6. The first-ever native IPv6 DDoS attack was recorded in early March. The DNS dictionary attack originated from around 1,900 native IPv6 hosts on more than 650 different networks, targeting Neustar's DNS service.

Incidentally, Gont also helped to develop RFC 8021, a patch for preventing fragmentation attacks aimed at IPv6 routers in large-scale core networks.

In his talk at PHDays 8, Gont will delve into the design of the IPv6 protocol and decisions made during the standards-making process, including their consequences for security and privacy. He will also discuss measures for strengthening IPv6 security and certain aspects of the protocol that can be abused for malicious ends using tools available online.

Get your tickets for Positive Hack Days to see Gont and other prominent presenters in person!