Positive Hack Days V: entering a singularity

The fifth Positive Hack Days international forum on practical information security will take place in World Trade Center Moscow on May 26 and 27, 2015. The conference organized by Positive Technologies will bring together leading experts on cyber defense and the elite of the hacker world, representatives of state institutions and executives of large businesses, young scientists and journalists.

More than 2,500 experts from 18 countries visited PHDays IV in 2014. The formula of PHDays remains the same: a passion for discovery, no dull advertising, unique equipment, large space for experiments, professional discussion kept right to the point, informal communication between hackers and information security experts as well as contests based on the real-life experience.

As in years before, the fifth PHDays conference will bring its surprises inspired by the general theme of this year's forum.

The singularity is out there

Many present-day visionary thinkers and futurists believe that human civilization is now at the point of global changes. Worldwide network has accelerated the exchange of information; the pace of scientific and technological progress can be compared with a taking off rocket. Neural networks and quantum computers, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and bioengineering... What if all these things start working for the welfare of mankind? Perhaps it will be the most wonderful time in the history of humanity...

And vice versa, it may be the most dangerous epoch for society when a wave of chaos comes down on digital space and distorts the unprepared canvas of reality. In this New World, every word you said and every action you took will be stored, indexed and used against you. The boundaries of this world will be transparent for some people but turn into the walls of a prison for others.

Well, now we are close enough to the bifurcation point and even an insignificant influence on the complex system can cause the avalanche-like restructuring. Which scenario will we face? Is it going to be a high-tech barbarism from William Gibson's Bridge trilogy and the land of of Pelevin's "zukerbrins" or the new "Noon: 22nd Century" when human civilization raises the up to the next level, overcoming the diseases and exploring other planets?

Every night when we go to sleep we have a chance to wake up in another universe. At any time, the expanding to infinity universe may turn back and then rush to the start point. Or maybe finish point. Back to singularity. Will We Make the Right Choice?

The fifth spring will be hot

During the four years apart from wins in in ratings and various awards the forum earned a lot of good words from professionals from the information security community.

Expert opinion:

Bruce Schneier, a cryptography expert, Chief Security Technology Officer at British Telecom: "We have been organizing security conferences for more than ten years. The major part of them are boring corporate events. However, this conference is something completely different. It not only inspires, it is very practical and quite counter-cultural".

Marc "van Hauser" Heuse: "I had high expectations when I came to Moscow. I thought of Russian lead hackers like having long beards, dressed fully in black, with their small laptops. Actually, it was more friendly and more open-minded. People were wearing everything from black clothes to business suits, there were a lot of students... It was a nice mix actually."

Nick Galbreath: "Defcon seems to have a competitor. And that is good".

Sergey Khodakov, Head of Information Security Sector at Skolkovo: "PHDays gives talented teams momentum for development and for finding their way in entrepreneurship, in the white hat community".

William Hagestad, a military expert in cyber-intelligence: "PHDays is a unique event, where we can see how information security is created and find out who is who in this field. The forum is notable due to realistic contests, such as CTF, Critical Infrastructure Attack and the contest where participants are dealing with a smart home's obstacles".

geohot: "It was fantastic and very intensive".

Marc Furrer, President of ComCom: "It was a very good experience. PHDays is tremendously creative. Fantastic atmosphere".

Yury Grin, Deputy Director of ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau: "PHDays-like events demonstrate how many sides information security has and what difficulties specialists from different fields of practice meet in the course of information infrastructure protection".

Arrangements for PHDays V are in full swing. Positive Technologies' experts are busy at night preparing technical drawings, performing analysis behind closed doors, searching and buying rare equipment. For now, you can check out video compilations of previous events and reports of the fourth forum, and prepare your own research because our Call for Papers will be open soon. Everyone has a chance!

See you at Positive Hack Days V!