OWASP AppSec Research EU 2012

Two years ago, around February I found myself sending a mail regarding AppSec Research EU 2010. It was a mail to John Wilander , chair of the organizing committee , asking to be a volunteer for the conference. Back then I was still a M.Sc. student leaving abroad and this was more or less my only chance at attending. I had “met” John when he came to give us a lecture on Web Application security in DSV for a course I was taking at that time. In another course, the course literature included Software Security : building security in by Gary McGraw . To cut a long story short, I ended up attending the conference as a volunteer, helped around with all kinds of stuff before and during the conference days and had the opportunity to attend quite a few interesting presentations.

Fast forward to 2012 , I found myself sending another mail regarding OWASP AppSec Research. This time it was a submission for the CFP for a presentation/demo on locational privacy and cree.py, titled : “The cree.py side of geolocation. Weaponizing your check-ins. “ . Yesterday I got a reply that it was accepted. It was accepted in a conference where Gary McGraw is giving a keynote, and John Wilander is presenting his “Advanced CSRF and Stateless Anti-CSRF” talk. These two are just an example of the cool people and presentations that will be around, I just mention only these as they play a part in my story.

I feel extremely happy, humbled and privileged to be given such an opportunity. It’s not that “I’m there” or “I’m getting there” , wherever and whatever this “there” is. It’s just a small personal “victory”, a very own #WIN moment to realize that what sometime ago was just an abstract idea in my mind, became a project I will talk to people about in a conference like AppSec Research. I hope I can deliver an interesting, fun and educational talk and more importantly get to hear what other people will be presenting, mingle and get a feeling of the community. The trip to Athens will be an extra Bonus 🙂

Well, see you in Greece in July !