Nota Bene

After all the presentations, meetings, and interviews at our Latin American partner conference, we had some important business visits lined up in a couple of places around Rio the next day. But all work and no play makes Eugene a dull boy – especially in Rio…

I’d long secretly dreamed not just of being back in Rio, but of catching the sunrise somewhere at the foot of the Christ the Redeemer statue. So that was the plan post-business, and to make the logistics easier we decided to switch from our hotel in the suburbs to another one closer to downtown and the statue.

And just as we were checking out of our first hotel in the afternoon, our Brazilian colleagues, upon finding out we were heading into Rio and had a free evening, suggested we go watch the sunset from Sugarloaf Mountain – all about which I told you and showed you in a previous post.

So we hop into a car to take us to Rio. Meanwhile, one of our events crew (the awesome team that handles our exhibitions, conferences, etc. – huge thanks to them!) is frantically trying to get us fast-track tickets for Sugarloaf – for there isn’t much time left before sunset, and we really wanted to make it. But that’s enough detail; main thing: we (practically) made it!…

And here’s the sunset – from Sugarloaf Mountain:

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If you’re not in the know, the words Louvre and Abu Dhabi might seem incongruent. But it turns out there’s an art museum in the latter that’s renting just the name Louvre off the famous Paris museum for 40 years (2007–2047) for US$500,000! What?! Just goes to show: never underestimate the value of a brand name!

Sure, I was curious – and in town. So of course – we just had to get ourselves over to the Louvre Abu Dhabi!…

Read on…

People often ask me what I talk about these days at the numerous conferences I speak at around the world.

Most of my talks aren’t deep technical dives or analyses of specific cyberattacks. For those, our experts give detailed presentations at specialized events, and publish articles in cybersecurity media. I usually provide a broad overview: discussing what’s happening in the world of cybersecurity, the pressing issues, and where everything’s headed. I almost always have a basis, or template, which I generally adapt for a particular audience or event…

For example, in this post let me share what I discussed at a recent conference of ours in St. Petersburg.

Since the conference was called “Cybersecurity of the Future”, I gave cybersecurity forecasts: what threats we’ll face, and how we’ll tackle them. But before that, as is customary for me, I first gave a brief historical overview of IT-villainy – “from Adam to… Telegram”.

Cybercrime: how did it all start?

So why do we need to dive into the archaeological past and the relics of various malware? Well, because if you don’t know the past, you can’t predict the future. So we look back to events of the past so we can analyze what’s happening here and now and why. Moreover, we’ve been known to be rather good at accurately predicting future cyber-scenarios (more on this below). So let’s roll back around 20-25 years, and remember how the computer mischief of the late 20^th century turned into a whole industry of international crime – and a serious problem for humanity on a whole.

Read on…

Hey everyone!

As I write this I’m recovering after a 32-hour multi-stopover flight back from Latin America; however, despite the exhaustion, I’m already back into reminiscing about Rio de Janeiro while the memories are still fresh…

The first time I visited this splendid city (and Brazil, for that matter) was way back in 2006. We were having our second Latin American partner conference in a place called Salvador (here), and we figured it’d be a shame not to spend a few days on some banal tourism. I mean, why fly halfway around the world just to work and then immediately head back home? No – you need to stay a while longer and take a good look around.

But since I wasn’t blogging in 2006, there aren’t any photos on the internet from back then. Still, I do have a few pics in my archives – for example the following. Yes, it was windy! ->

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Ok, let’s have a show of hands…

Who has experienced, or at least knows about something about, teamLab?

Ah, just as I thought: not many. Too bad! For this is a uniquely entertaining art project at the intersection of light effects and music, computer animation, and a completely wild atmosphere. Drop everything and get there!…

Last year I visited the teamLab Planets mega-digital-lightshow in Tokyo, and now had come the time to check out their latest exposition in the UAE.

You really need to see this phenomenon “live”, as photos and videos only capture some of the impressions and emotions. Accordingly, this post needs to be considered merely as an introduction to teamLab Abu Dhabi: a modest and not too professional promo-account about this highly intriguing art event. Which goes something like this:

Here‘s where it’s situated:

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I’ll tell you about Rio a bit later, as well as other notable events of my trip. But first I want to tell you about Brasília, the capital of Brazil – for it’s rather an intriguing place…

The city was built from scratch in the early 1960s (meaning it’s less than 70 years old!) specially to become the capital – Brazil’s state-administrative center. The main buildings were designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer – known for his leading role in designing the UN headquarters in New York…

With a population of about 2.5 million, the city’s shaped like a bird (or airplane) – a long, narrow central part with two “wings” on each side. Here it is on Google Maps:

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Another day – another continent!…

• Country: Brazil.
• City: Rio de Janeiro
• Main business: our regional (the Americas; these days mostly Latin American) partner conference
• Secondary activity: tourisms – of course!…

First up – the partner conference carnival. It wasn’t in Rio city itself, but a bit outside – in a beach suburb; still Rio though. I’d been here a couple of times before, but that was ages ago. The first time was in 2006; the second in 2010 – and on both occasions the reason I was here was for… you won’t will believe it: regional partner conferences!

Back then, I didn’t bother with detailed stories and lots photos (that got started properly in 2011), so I can’t compare today’s experience with that from 19 and 15 years ago, alas.

On the morning of our arrival, with a few hard days’ work ahead, we start out with breakfast looking out onto the South Atlantic Ocean – and a seemingly endless traffic jam:

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Hi folks!

Herewith – another rewind/catch-up post now I’ve had some time get it done!…

And so it’s back to the United Arab Emirates – this time the Emirate of Abu Dhabi – for… this! ->

But first – rewind. (“Again?!”)

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How many times have I been to Dubai? Based on both memory and my photo archives, I think it must be no less than 20 times. Some were long trips, others were lightning-fast one-day hops; all the same – you’d think I’d have seen all there is to see and snap there by now. But you’d be wrong. For they build new stuff here faster than I can keep up with; example: the Ain Dubai Ferris wheel ->

In keeping with Dubai’s shiny maximalism, it turns out it’s the tallest Ferris wheel in the world – a full 250 meters in height.

The closer we get – the more impressively grandiose the views get…

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Ask any tourist what’s the most famous hotel in Singapore, and most will confidently answer Marina Bay Sands. And they’d be right! This iconic hotel, with its distinctive unique design, which towers over a small man-made patch of land by the Bay (here), is so dominant you literally can’t miss it – not that anyone would want too!…

And ask the same tourists what stands out the most for them regarding the Marina Bay Sands, and the answers will be unanimous: the rooftop! Of course! And it totally deserves the hype. So let’s head up there right now. Up we go to the top (57^th) floor – from where the views are absolutely mind-blowing:

Read on…