Hai folks!

The official part of our SAS-2024 conference: done.

Now – the fun part: our esteemed delegates, respected speakers, honorable guests (and I!) continue to enjoy this picture-perfect corner of the island of Bali while they come to their senses – still digesting the mega-doses of first-class cybersecurity content they’ve just received…

As to my (direct) participation in the proceedings (besides watching the speeches), the highlight for sure was my being on stage – not as interviewee, but as interviewer. I can’t recall if I’d ever done such a thing before (if I had it was decades ago). Anyway, it felt like the first time – and early on I was really nervous! Yes – me! But I soon got into the swing of it – no doubt partly due to just how interesting my interviewees were: the Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and American astronaut Leroy Chiao! We discussed all sorts of cybersecurity issues in space: how they duplicate the comms channels on the International Space Station, who’s responsible for installing updates, what happens if an incident occurs, and lots more besides…

Read on…

Hi folks – from Indonesia, where we’re holding our yearly international cybersecurity conference SAS – the Security Analyst Summit.

Dozens of cybersecurity events take place around the world every year, but ours has its own special format – its own special work-hard-play-hard ethic, and it’s always by the sea in a tropical clime. It attracts leading analysts and researchers of the most complex cyberattacks, and this year we’re in Bali ->

Read on…

Hi all!

As per my chokka, ongoing business-trip schedule, I recently found myself down in Sochi where we had our 12^th conference dedicated to industrial cybersecurity. Every year the industrial topic gets all the more popular, while our exhibition gets all the more large. Nearly 450 guests were in attendance this time – meaning we wouldn’t have all fitted into last year’s venue; accordingly, the view out the window was a little different to the usual one:

I kicked things off to a packed hall (just how I like it) ->

Read on…

All righty. I told you about the preparations and rehearsals for our birthday blowout. Today let me tell you about the blowout itself – and I don’t use that term for a party without reason…

So, the roof of the main stage had been repaired (put back), and the day promised to be a warm and sunny one; however… ->

Yes – that huge mass of cloud was heading right our way. And despite our crossed fingers, it didn’t pass us by…

Read on…

Hi folks!

Early July for us every year gives us something very special to celebrate here at K: our corporate birthday! For several years already we’ve held our all-day birthday party in Zavidovo out in the Moscow Region (here) (since it’s perhaps the only venue that can fit us all in). This year, suddenly – we’re 27 years old already, and to celebrate, we had more than 3300 guests attend the bash!…

In case you’re new to this here blog of mine, here are some posts on how things have gone down birthday-wise in recent years – 2023, 2022, 2021, and so on.

In today’s post – photos from the day before the shindig: a day of rehearsals and other preparations…

The main stage was up, everything so far going to plan ->

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I’ve a great many different hobbies and favorite activities – just like anyone. But one of the more unorthodox is long-distance beach-walking. What that?! Easy: Take any sandy beach – and stomp along it barefoot for as long as possible…

Does that include walking back all the way barefoot too? It does indeed. And I’ve never needed alternative options, which are, btw: (i) take a cab; (ii) take a taxi-boat by sea; and 3) be carried in/on some kinda carriage by porters (no WAY!)!

As regards some of the folks who may want to join me on such a barefoot beach-hike, I often have to feel sorry for them! Like I did recently in the Dominican Republic where we had our regional (North, Central and South America) partner conference: in-between work some colleagues joined me…

So we headed on down to the beach, looked left – not much happening down there, and then right – and decided that was the better option. The main reason: there was a tangible destination > that far end of the beach (with the trees behind it) where it seems to just end. Endpoint decided, off we popped…

Read on…

With conference season still in full-swing, I’ve been busier than a bee of late. Just recently I only had two days at home and it was back on the road again. This time though it was a domestic business trip – albeit it a thoroughly important one …

It was for CIPR in the city of Nizhny Novgorod. CIPR?…

CIPR is a transliteration from the Russian ЦИПР, which stands for “Digital Industry of Industrial Russia”. That was a direct translation that came out clumsy in English (curiously due to the fact that there are two words for industry/industrial in Russian; only one in English:), but it’s now taken on the more modern and pertinent (in terms of content), and appropriate (in terms of English language sense) name of “Digitalization of Industrial Russia”.

CIPR: conference, exhibition, presentations, speeches, agreement signings, meets, greets, handshakes, chats. Never dull, and always a pleasure (it takes place yearly in Nizhny Novgorod – Russia’s sixth-largest city, 500km east of Moscow) ->

That fine historical building is where the talks and panel discussions take place, while the exhibition – needing a bit more room – is in the large, modern hangar-like building next door. That’s where we head first…

Read on…

Hi folks – from sunny thunderous Thailand!

Been a while, I know – but I’ve been busy (as always). Of course I have – for it’s our partner-conference (both regional and global) season. We’ve already had Italy and Hungary; now it was Thailand’s turn…

After landing, we head on over to the venue, which turns out to be the same hotel where we put on another conference (SAS) late last year. Small world, and déjà vu, as they say…

But back to this year’s conference: it was the partner conference for the ~Middle Eastern and African regions, aka META (Middle East + Turkey + Africa). But enough already with definitions and demarcations! Let me simply tell you the conference was a 10/10!

• Guests: 135 (140 were planning to attend, but five didn’t get their visas in time; we’ll take this into account for the future)
• Countries represented: 24
• Partner companies represented: 65

But enough of stats already! Let me simply repeat that the conference was a 10/10 :)

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Hi folks!

After Budapest, next up – Istanbul. Out the window of my hotel room – a nice view, with the weather bearable ->

Nice bridge; not nice traffic:

I was looking forward to some tourisms the following day as it was a weekend; would the weather hold out?…

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The next stop on our whirlwind Euro-April-2024 tour – Budapest…

We’d had our Italian Partner Conference days before – in Milan, as mentioned (and the press loved it). Now it was time for our Global Partner Conference in the Hungarian capital. As per, we had guests fly in from every continent apart from Antarctica (of course) and also, alas – Australia (due to the geopolitical situation). The rest of the world however was in full attendance :) ->

…But I’ll come back to that topic. First, we needed to get from Italy to Hungary…

Read on…