Last week we had the pleasure of speaking at the 6th Irish Reporting and Information Security Service Computer Emergency Response Team (IRISSCERT) Cyber Crime Conference (IRISSCon) in Dublin, Ireland. IRISSCERT is an independent, not-for-profit company, limited by guarantee, and  founded in 2008 to provide a range of free services to Irish businesses and consumers in relation to information security issues to help counter the security threats posed to Irish businesses and the Irish Internet space.

In addition to presenting a talk on the threats facing Ireland’s corner of the Internet, we were also at IRISSCon to announce a data sharing partnership between IRISSCERT and OpenDNS. Visibility into emerging threats, as they are being staged, is a critical first step in staying ahead of Internet attacks and limiting their damage. We are pleased to be announcing this intelligence sharing relationship with IRISSCERT so they can use OpenDNS solutions for early detection, response, and remediation of threats in Ireland.

IRISSCERT will use OpenDNS Investigate to alert and protect Irish businesses and other organizations from malicious domains that are hosting malware, phishing sites, and botnet command-and-control (C&C) infrastructure. OpenDNS will use the threat intelligence data shared by IRISSCERT to support our ongoing research into malicious online activity around the world. The full press release can be found here.

The organizers informed us that the conference sold out (at roughly 300 people!). Not only did it sell out, but there was a lengthy waitlist to get in, with organizations and individuals calling on the day of to try and obtain “special” access.

Prior to the event, the conference speakers (myself included) got together for dinner, drinks, and lengthy discussions on the global security landscape – with a focus on Ireland and Western Europe. This was a pleasant change from the typical US-centric discussions we often encounter at North American security conferences.  The craic was mighty.

For a one day conference, there were far too many great talks to call out. As you can see in the keynote by Paul Gillen, Head of Operations at @Europol_EU European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), the conference was very well attended.

In addition to the speaking portion of the conference, a well attended capture the flag (CTF) competition was run in the adjacent room. The winners, a group of students from the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown (ITB) in Dublin, had participated in previous years’ IRISSCON CTFs.

Oh, and did I mention the amazing food and drink?

Look for OpenDNS Labs at more EMEA events in 2015 as we continue to bring our global security platform to every corner of the globe. Also, if you would like to explore an information sharing partnership like the one we’ve established with IRISSCERT, please reach out to me directly at andrew.hay@opendns.com.

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