Monday: Cliff Stoll, and Vendor Showcases

The day (and conference) started off strong with Clifford Stoll’s keynote. Clear about the fact that he was making a presentation he first gave in 1986 – and has given several times since then – Stoll nonetheless kept his audience entertained and educated, presenting “evergreen” material that is as relevant today as it was 25 years ago. Among his highlights:

Northern California member Ira Victor followed up with an in-depth interview of Cliff, which he recorded for his Cyber Jungle podcast.

Following the day’s main lab and lecture events, Platinum sponsors Micro Systemation AB and AccessData showcased new products in the Emerald ballrooms.

Amid music, hors d’oeuvres and drinks, MSAB unveiled the worldwide preview of XRY 6.0, including an improved user interface, better export options, and Watchlist automation. MSAB will be providing training at our Philadelphia/Delaware Valley chapter in October, followed by training in South Florida in late October-early November. They’re available to come to any chapter needing mobile phone forensics training – is yours one of them?

Meanwhile, AccessData’s Keith Lockhart talked a bit about Early Case Assessment. During the well-attended and well-received presentation, Lockhart went through this e-discovery product, discussing features such as its ability to filter large amounts of data, to handle collaborative web-based review of that same data, and most of all, its immediate cost savings for forensic and legal teams.

And after all was said and done, participants gathered at the Stir Nightclub on-site for the traditional Northeast Chapter Party!

Tuesday: What we liked best, and our Annual Banquet

Just to keep abreast of what was going on from our participants’ point of view, we asked what they liked best about our conference. Some of the responses:

In the evening came our banquet, a richly rewarding experience that started with drummers from the intercollegiate musical group Senryu Taiko and ended with a hilarious comedy routine from “The Lovemaster,” Craig Shoemaker. In between we enjoyed ribeye steak, a 25^th Anniversary chocolate torte, and opening for Craig, comedian Richard Aronovitch.

But the evening’s core lay in our awards ceremonies, where we presented plaques to the winners of our Case of the Year, Chapter of the Year, and Lifetime Achievement Awards. This year, as last year, the Case of the Year winners got a standing ovation for their hard work in putting a killer behind bars. And contenders for Chapter of the Year got a challenge: give SoCal a run for their money!

HTCIA 2011 Case of the Year winners Eichbaum, Cook, Sunseri & Maloney

HTCIA 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award winner Ken Citarella, Northeast Chapter

HTCIA 2011 Chapter of the Year: Southern California's board members

Wednesday: Wrapping up great learning experiences

By Wednesday everyone’s brains were just about full, but our labs and lectures enjoyed good attendance nonetheless:

Other conference highlights: lunchtime raffles, international tweets & still more networking

Lunchtimes offered good food and great prizes. Over chicken and pasta (Monday), cold cuts (Tuesday), and Chinese cooking (Wednesday), participants had the chance to buy tickets to enter our raffles. Giveaways included:

• autographed copies of Cliff Stoll’s book, “The Cuckoo’s Egg”
• autographed Cliff Stoll Klein bottles (provided by Wireshark University)
• Wireshark Air Pcap software with adapter
• ear buds from Monster Cable
• Abobe Photoshop CS5

Vendors got in on the action too:

• Mobile Forensics Inc.‘s Lee Reiber gave away one copy of Mobile Phone Examiner Plus in each of his labs.
• Forward Discovery raffled several copies of their Raptor on USB
• Sumuri Forensics raffled free Cellebrite and Mac courses, as well as a Wii
• Cellebrite itself gave away one Physical Pro unit
• AccessData raffled off a copy of Forensic Toolkit
• Oxygen Forensics likewise raffled copies of their Forensic Suite 2011 Analyst with USB dongle
• Laura Chappell’s Wireshark Network Analysis Study Guide (and this was on top of the $700 worth of free online training she gave away to each participant!)

If you were following our hashtag #HTCIACon on Twitter, you may have noticed a few foreign-language tweets. As an international organization, we love to see our members reaching out to their own communities in their native languages. Spanish and Dutch participants did exactly that, including a longer blog post by member and presenter Andres Velazquez.

HTCIA conferences would be nothing without networking and the exchange of amazing ideas. Jim Hoerricks wrote about it, and posted some of those ideas in his blog. We also heard from Albert Barsocchini, who came with an e-discovery perspective.

Did you write or podcast about the HTCIA conference or good outcomes you gleaned? Please let us know in comments!

Sunday morning: Golf Tourney

On Sunday, September 11, 2011, Bronze sponsor CRU-DataPort/WiebeTech will be sponsoring a tournament at the Indian Wells Golf Resort starting at 8:00am. The tournament fee is $75 per player and includes green fees, cart and deluxe golf and digital forensic prizes.

For more details, see our earlier blog post!

Sunday night: Movie Night

Silver Sponsor Vound (makers of Intella email forensics software) is sponsoring a Movie Night on the Rose Lawn. Co-founder Peter Mercer asked for a movie with kangaroos, and/or cricket. Will we deliver?

Monday morning: Keynote Speaker Cliff Stoll

A quirky but charismatic speaker, Cliff Stoll is known for his “restless energy,” as the TED Talks site notes:

You may not be sure where he’s going, but the ride is always part of the adventure.

An astronomer (though his astronomy career took a turn when he noticed a bookkeeping error that ultimately led him to track down a notorious hacker), researcher and internationally recognized computer security expert — who happens to be a vocal critic of technology — Stoll makes a sharp, witty case for keeping computers out of the classroom. Currently teaching college-level physics to eighth graders at a local school, he stays busy in his spare time building Klein bottles.

Monday night: Northeast Chapter Party

What would an HTCIA annual conference be without the traditional Northeast Chapter Party? This is still tentative on our schedule, but we can’t imagine going without this year. Even if we do, the Renaissance Esmeralda has informed us of their desire to have their nightclub open for Monday Night Football. Either way, see you there!

Tuesday: Awards Banquet with Comedian Craig Shoemaker

Our Tuesday evening dinner is an opportunity for us to recognize our association’s biggest contributors. Here we bestow our Chapter of the Year, Case of the Year, and Lifetime Achievement Awards. This year, meet our winners: our Southern California chapter, Central Valley chapter members James Eichbaum and Jim Cook (and maybe, the detectives and deputy DA they assisted), and Ken Citarella of our Northeast chapter.

The evening’s entertainment will come courtesy of Craig Shoemaker, ABC American Comedy Awards’ Comedian of the Year in 1998. An actor and voiceover artist as well as stand-up talent, Shoemaker has worked in stand-up comedy for 20 years. Viewers voted his half-hour Comedy Central special as one of the network’s Top 20 stand-up specials of all time, and his forum, Laughter Heals, serves people suffering from life-threatening illnesses along with their families.

Our lectures form the core of our training and education efforts, but we’re also known for the networking that can only come when new friends and good friends alike come together to share, eat, drink and have a good time. Join us in Indian Wells – we think it’ll be the event of the year!