2005 Austin Conference

Conference attendees rated the content and speakers of the event as excellent.  The comments and evaluations received were overwhelmingly positive, with most attendees feeling the value obtained far and away exceeded the cost of attending.  Attendees suggest that future conferences offer more time for the conference and that session tracks could be repeated so they could attend all of their first and second choice sessions.

As one attendee wrote:

"I would like to thank everyone for the terrific work done for TRISC 2005. As a speaker, I found everyone to be gracious and helpful. As an attendee, I appreciate the effort to bring these top-notch presentations (Bruce Schneier!) to Texas. It must take a lot of hard work to make a conference work as smoothly as this one did. Congratulations; I can't wait until next year!"
                                Marc Bayerkohler, Jefferson Wells

For a first year conference, the response from the vendor community was excellent. While vendors are looking for a higher number of attendees at future conferences, they were definitely pleased with the quality of attendees.

The conference was hosted by the Texas professional chapters of ISSA, ISACA, ASIS and InfraGard.

Organizers gathered excellent feedback on how to improve the conference and plans are already underway for TRISC 2006 to be held in Houston sometime mid to late spring.

2005 Keynote Speakers

Ron Ross
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Senior Computer Scientist/Researcher
Dr. Ron Ross is a senior computer scientist and information security researcher at the NationalInstitute of Standards and Technology (NIST). His areas of specialization include security requirements definition, security testing and evaluation, and information assurance. Dr. Ross currently leads the FISMA Implementation Project for NIST, which includes the development of key security standards and guidelines for the Federal government and critical information infrastructure.

He previously served as the Director of the National
Information Assurance Partnership, a joint activity of NISTand the National Security Agency. He was also the principal investigator on several large information security-related projects to include development of security requirements and specifications for computer systems and networks, security capability assessments of commercial operating systems, and the development of computer security research and education programs.

A 1973 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Dr. Ross served in a variety of leadership and technical positions during his 20-year career in the United States Army before retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. While assigned to the National Security Agency, Dr. Ross received the Scientific Achievement Award for his work
in a national information system security project and was awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal upon his departure from the Agency.

Bruce Schneier
Counterpane
Founder and Chief Technical Officer
Internationally-renowned security technologist and author Bruce Schneier is both a founder and the chief technical officer of Counterpane Internet Security, Inc., the world’s leading protector of networked information - the inventor of outsourced security monitoring and the foremost authority on effective mitigation ofemerging IT threats.

Mr. Schneier is the author of eight books, including his current best seller, Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly about Security in an Uncertain World, which tackles the problems of security from the small to the large: personal safety, crime, corporate security, national security. Secrets & Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World, which was published in October 2000, has sold 150,000 copies. One of his earlier books, Applied Cryptography, now in its second edition, is the seminal work in its field and has sold over 200,000 copies and has been translated into five languages. He writes the free email newsletter Crypto-Gram, which has over 120,000 readers. Schneier designed the popular Blowfish and Twofish encryption algorithms, the latter a finalist for the new Federal Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Mr. Schneier served on the board of directors of the International Association for Cryptologic Research, and is an Advisory Board member for the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Ray Semko
Defense Security Service
Senior Intelligence Analyst
Ray Semko, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has 33 years of U.S. government service specializing in military intelligence and counterintelligence.

Semko is the father of the D*I*C*E Program (Defensive Information to Counter Espionage). The program is designed to provide the most current unclassified threat information and to remind people of their individual security responsibilities and the need to report strange, curious, or suspicious activities. Mr. Semko is a well-known figure in private sector and U.S. government security circles for this unique security awareness/threat briefing.

After joining the Interagency OPSEC Support Staff (IOSS), a federal agency providing OPSEC services to the national security community, in 2000, Mr. Semko spent most of his time on the speaking circuit. Mr. Semko has presented over 300 briefings, reaching more than 59,000 participants. DICEMAN 2005 focuses on current events and trends in the information security world. He is now offering the DICE Briefing through the Defense Security Service.

John Saba
Texas Assistant Attorney General for Cyber Crime
John Saba is an attorney with the Texas Attorney General’s Office specializing in Internet-related legal matters. In this capacity, Mr. Saba has dealt with a wide range of computer related cases both criminal and civil. Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office, Mr. Saba worked for the Lucent Technologies Network Consulting Group, specializing in computer network design and network implementation. Mr. Saba has presented at numerous seminars on various Internet and computer related topics. He has authored published works on Internet law, such as Internet Property Rights: eTrespass (33 St. Mary’s L.J. 367) and eProcamation: No More Spam in Texas, 66 Texas B.J. 660 (2003).

Howard Schmidt
President and CEO of R & H Security
Consulting LLC
Howard A. Schmidt has had a long distinguished career in defense, law enforcement and corporate security spanning almost 40 years. He has served as Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer and Chief Security Strategist for online auction giant eBay. He most recently served in the position of Chief Security Strategist for the US CERT Partners Program for the National Cyber Security Division, Department of Homeland Security.

He retired from the White House after 31 years of public service in local and federal government. He was appointed by President Bush as the Vice Chair of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board and as the Special Adviser for Cyberspace Security for the White House in December 2001. He assumed the role as the Chair in January 2003 until his retirement in May 2003.

Prior to the White House, Howard was chief security officer for Microsoft Corp., where his duties included CISO, CSO and forming and directing the Trustworthy Computing Security Strategies Group.

Before Microsoft, Mr. Schmidt was a supervisory special agent and director of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) Computer Forensic Lab and Computer Crime and Information Warfare Division. While there, he established the first dedicated computer forensic lab in the government.

Before AFOSI, Mr. Schmidt was with the FBI at the National Drug Intelligence Center , where he headed the Computer Exploitation Team. He is recognized as one of the pioneers in the field of computer forensics and computer evidence collection. Before working at the FBI, Mr. Schmidt was a city police officer from 1983 to 1994 for the Chandler Police Department in Arizona.

Mr. Schmidt served with the U.S. Air Force in various roles from 1967 to 1983, both in active duty and in the civil service. He had served in the Arizona Air National Guard from 1989 until 1998 when he transferred to the U.S. Army Reserves as a Special Agent, Criminal Investigation Division where he continues to serve. He has testified as an expert witness in federal and military courts in the areas of computer crime, computer forensics and Internet crime.

Mr. Schmidt had also served as the international president of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) and the first president of the Information Technology Information Sharing and Analysis Center (IT-ISAC). He is a former executive board member of the International Organization of Computer Evidence, and served as the co-chairman of the Federal Computer Investigations Committee. He is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Scientists. He serves as an advisory board member for the Technical Research Institute of the National White Collar Crime Center , and was a distinguished special lecturer at the University of New Haven, Conn., teaching a graduate certificate course in forensic computing.

He served as an augmented member to the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology in the formation of an Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection. He has testified before congressional committees on computer security and cyber crime, and has been instrumental in the creation of public and private partnerships and information-sharing initiatives. He is regularly featured on CNN, CNBC, Fox TV as well as a number of local media outlets talking about cyber-security.

Mr. Schmidt has been appointed to the Information Security Privacy Advisory Board (ISPAB) to advise the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Secretary of Commerce and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget on information security and privacy issues pertaining to Federal Government information systems, including thorough review of proposed standards and guidelines developed by NIST.

Mr. Schmidt holds board positions on a number of corporate boards in both an advisory and director positions and recently has assumed the role as Chairman of the Board for Electronics Lifestyle Integration (ELI).

Mr. Schmidt holds a bachelor's degree in business administration (BSBA) and a master's degree in organizational management (MAOM) from the University of Phoenix . He also holds an Honorary Doctorate degree in Humane Letters.