Keynote: Eric Chien

The New Generation of Targeted Attacks (the slides are available here)

Google's public announcement of being a victim of the now widely publicized Aurora targeted attacks introduced a new era in the threat landscape. Targeted attacks previously primarily directed at government entities and mostly kept confidential are now being brought to the forefront. While mass attacks such as Conficker receive large amounts of media coverage, to their victims, undisclosed targeted attacks are likely to be far more damaging.
This presentation discussed the common themes in targeted attack methods of operation with an in-depth look at Aurora (also known as Hydraq) and other targeted attacks. The goal of these attacks differ markedly from mass attacks in their desire to gain access to information held by the employer, industry, or organization of the target such as intellectual property and confidential documents. By their nature, while targeted attacks are each different and customized, their common goal lends themselves to common attack characteristics.

Eric Chien is the Technical Director at Symantec Security Response. His responsibilities include analyzing current malware attacks, researching new threats, designing solutions for the next generation of threats, and ensuring effective solutions against current attacks. Chien has spoken at various conferences, published numerous papers, and contributed to a variety books regarding threats to computer security via malicious software.