UBTP AND BITS BREAKFAST- 15 APRIL 2008

Forty-five registrations were received for the second combined event on 15 April 2008 where the Guest Speaker was Ms Megan O'Neill, Investigator and Incident Responder of IBM Computer Emergence Response Team (Sydney Office).

IBM CERT A/NZ customers are under constant attack from organised crime gangs trying to commit fraud and espionage against IBM's customers all of whom can utilise the talents of the team to investigate and respond to the daily threats they are faced with.

Megan O'Neill leads the Investigator and Incident Responders of IBM CERT - A/NZ and will share a taste of her day to day activities. Megan spoke about dispelling the 'Hollywood' hype and shared some of her experiences seen over a 12 year career. The challenge's of dusting for computer footprints, analysing the bones of malware, fishing for phishers, and fighting the good fight against ICT threat worldwide were confirmed as all too real.

After the event an email thank you was sent to attendees along with a request for feedback on the breakfast event. Nearly 40 percent of attendees responded. Sixty percent of respondents rated the value of the time spent attending the event as excellent with a further 35 percent indicating that it was very good. Thirty percent of participants indicated that the event gave them a great degree of new viewpoints and insights. A further 59 percent indicated that their insight into cyber safety issues had been enhanced to a moderate degree. More than 82 percent of respondents indicated that they would attend future UBTP and BITS Breakfast events. The remaining 18 percent selected the ‘Don’t Know’ response.

The following statements are a selection of the responses which participants provided when asked what they liked most about the event:

• Well presented, not too technical, interesting and not too long

• Being able to reflect on my experience with the experiences of Megan and how little I realised I had dealt with the real world on these matters in comparison to the capacity she does on a daily basis. And relating the "buzz" she receives from her work to my own self passion of this industry

• Casual relaxed atmosphere, together with networking opportunities and insightful speakers

• Great topic, important to every business

• Hearing from such an exceptional speaker. It was indeed very interesting to hear of a world that we know exists (cyber attacks, etc) but generally do not deal with them head first

• Informative insight into the role of an emergency response role.

• Interesting material well presented that has relevance to all

• It was good to see that our thinking on security is along similar lines to those of IBM in that we are treating similar issues with the same priority

• It is great to get insight about various aspects of the IT industry from different experts in their fields

• Level of the presentation and the content and the subject

• Networking. Meeting other people within our local region in a setting like this is an invaluable experience for me

• The interesting profile of the speaker

• The speaker was aware of the audience composition and directed her comments appropriately to the different cohorts and spoke in a language that was easy to understand

• The speaker, Megan, was engaging, insightful, and informative

• The topic was a great insight

• Topical info from a specialist in the field

The most common themes across responses about what was least useful was related to time constraints:

• It would have been great to have further discussion as it was all very interesting but I understand the time constraints.

• More time for questions.

• The limited timeframe of group and personal interaction with Megan. I had many questions to ask. Question time ran a bit short, maybe try and start right on time, or advertise the start time earlier to allow for networking/socialising

• I would have enjoyed a technical look into what a CERT team actually does when something goes wrong.

Suggestions for improving future events included:

• Getting started on time to allow more time for the speaker and/or questions

• Staring just a little earlier and get the breakfast under way sooner so the event finishes prior to 9.00 rather than after. Maybe 7.15 arrive for 7.30 start?

• More structured question time….

• Maybe a bit longer for questions, as we ran short of time. Maybe start the presentation earlier?

• Handouts from the presentation and attendee contact list

• Longer timeframe with specified time for group and personal interaction (if possible).

• To have an optional further 15 - 30 minutes after the speaker to hang around for coffee

• Maybe look at the table setup so people don't have there back to the speaker.

• Ensure the subjects are relevant and the presenters are interesting such as today

• Find topics that relate to industry and are of interest to the Ballarat IT community

Other comments made by participants through the online feedback process included the following

• A worthwhile event, looking forward to the next event!

• Breakfast was terrific and tasty - compliments to the chef :-)

• Doing an excellent job Helen & team

• It ran very smoothly, I was very impressed! Looking forward to the May speaker from Bendigo Bank (and the brekky!). Thanks again.

• Job well done Helen and team!

• Really great concept, I hope we as an organisation can work closely with these events

• Thank you very much for the opportunity to attend this event.

• This event was great. The challenge is that it could have been a bit more technical, but perhaps would not have suited all the audience.