My Hat Is Blue

For the past two days I have been back in Seattle. It was almost two years ago I left the city, and was not sure when I'd get a chance to return. Microsoft's BlueHat security conference was a great reason to come back to my favorite rainy city.

What is BlueHat?From Microsoft's BlueHat site: "BlueHat is a by-invitation-only Microsoft security conference aimed at bringing Microsoft security professionals and external security researchers together in a relaxed environment to promote the sharing of ideas and social networking."

I was lucky enough to be invited this year, and hopefully in years to come, and glad I attended. The format was straightforward, one track aimed at educating Microsoft staff on threats in areas that could affect Microsoft. Talks included SMS and mobile threats, cloud computing, and of course software security.

Even better than the talks, at least to me, were the side discussions during the conference and afterward. The combination of diverse thought leaders and practitioners from the industry led to in-depth discussions and information sharing on everything from Microsoft products, privacy concerns in new technologies, and discussions of recent security problems and what we could learn from them. I definitely learned a thing or two.

Check the Microsoft BlueHat site for more information and presentation information.