4th Annual Texas Security Awareness Week
(TexSAW 2014)
Friday and Saturday, October 31-November 1, 2014
Hosted by The University of Texas at Dallas
Richardson, Texas

Sponsored in part by:

Computer security is a rapidly growing, incredibly diverse field. As technology continues to pervade our society, it is critical that all the information it carries is protected. UT Dallas’ Cyber Security Research and Education Institute is pleased to host the 4th Annual Texas Cyber Security Awareness Week (TexSAW) event. This year’s event aims to reach out to students who are interested in pursuing computer security. Students will be exposed to security concepts which will expand their knowledge of computing and broaden their career opportunities.

Students will have the opportunity to:

  • Meet students interested in cyber security from other universities in Texas.
  • Attend workshops on Friday, October 31st, to develop fundamental hands-on skills in cyber security including web security, system hardening and exploit development.
  • Hear a guest presentation from a leading industry expert.
  • Put their newly-learned skills to use in a cyber security competition on Saturday, November 1st.

We also invite you to join us on October 30th for a screening of Codebreaker in honor of the Cyber Security Institute’s (CSI) Ten Year Anniversary . Opening remarks begin at 6:30pm.

Student Hardware/Software Requirements

For Web Security Workshop:

Software:
1. Download and install Firefox browser on your laptop.
2. Download and install Tamper Data Plug In for Firefox
browser on your laptop.

Hardware:
1. Laptop with working WiFi capability.

For System Hardening Workshop:

Software:
1. Participant’s choice of VM hyperviser (VirtualBox, VMWare, Parallels (if on a Mac), etc.)
2. A 32-bit Ubuntu 14.04 VM (Specific packages utilized are quick to download during the session.)

Hardware:
1. A laptop with an Intel/AMD processor (minimum Core2Duo or equivalent class), absolute minimum of 2GB of RAM
(minimum of 4GB strongly recommended), at least 10GB of free hard drive space (external hard drives are fine), and working WiFi capability.

Note:
For the Ubuntu VM, we will have a VM image available for local download at the event, but if anyone attending would like to download the ISO and install it in a VM (default install, nothing special needed) then the packages used during the workshop can easily be installed as needed.

For Exploit Development Workshop:

Software:
1. Participant’s choice of VM hyperviser (VirtualBox or VMWare VMPlayer)
2. A pre-configured MS Windows XP VM (we will e-mail the participants with the URL to download it prior to the
event)

Hardware:
1. 512 MB RAM (for the XP VM)
2. 2.7+GB Disk space (to store the XP VM).

Program Schedule for TexSAW 2014 Student Activities

Friday, October 31, 2014

Student Workshops
TI Auditorium, ECSS 2.102

9 am - 9:30 am

Check-in and Continental Breakfast

9:30 am - 11:00 am

Web Security

Solomon Boyd
Jiayang Wang

Presentation Slides

11:00 am - 11:30 am

Break

11:30 am - 1:00 pm

Server Hardening

Corrin Thompson
Daniel Waymel


Presentation Slides

1:00 pm - 1:45 pm

Lunch

1:45pm – 2:45pm

Guest Lecture/Presentation

John South, Chief Security Officer
Heartland Payments Systems

 

3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Exploit Development

Nathan Ritchey
Michael Tucker


Presentation Slides

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Student Competition
TI Auditorium, ECSS 2.102

9 am - 9:30 am

Check-in and Continental Breakfast

9:30 am - 12:30 pm

CTF Competition

12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Lunch

1:30 pm - 2:15 pm

Presentation of Solutions

2:15 pm - 2:45pm

Award Ceremony and
Student Feedback