News

The next meeting of the San Diego Regional Info Watch (SDRIW) will be held on Monday, June 23 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. in the SDSC auditorium.

The SDRIW is a combination of network "neighborhood watch," users' group, and self-help organization. The group's membership includes local companies, law enforcement organizations, academic and research groups, and individual computer professionals who wish to gain and share knowledge in all areas of the field of information security. The San Diego Super Computer Center (SDSC) is a founding member of the SDRIW.

• The SDRIW provides opportunities for:
• Early warning of regional computer security incidents
• Information sharing on technical and legal issues relevant to computer security
• Personal contacts and trusted relationships between local professionals and law enforcement
• Networking opportunities for people in the computer security arena
• Education on security tools, techniques, and standards.

The June meeeting's presentation will be by Marcus J. Ranum, on "A work in progress: The System Log Templating Project."

System logging is the computer security equivalent of being the janitor. It's not very exciting, and you're dealing with large amounts of stuff that nobody wants to look at or handle - in fact, most people just throw it away without thinking about it. If you want to understand and use system log data, there are several problems with interpreting the contents of the log. In this talk, Ranum will describe some of work he has been doing at SDSC, and the results he has managed to achieve in the course of his research.

Ranum is a consultant and security products designer. He is the principal author of several major Internet firewall products, including the DEC SEAL, the

TIS Gauntlet, and the TIS Internet Firewall Toolkit. In 1997 he founded Network Flight Recorder, Inc., one of the leading intrusion detection product companies, and acted as its CEO, CTO, and chairman until 2001. He has been managing Unix systems and network security for over 13 years, and configured and managed whitehouse.gov during its first year of operation.

The talk is open to the public and free of charge (although off-campus visitors may have to deal with parking fees). See http://www.sdriw.org/calendar.shtml#parking for directions and parking information. See http://www.sdriw.org/ for additional information on the organization and its activities.