New York City Security Community

Each week, we’ll highlight a major city in the US and cover the places and events you can go to in that area to get your security information fix. This post is part of the information security communities project.

This week, we look at the infosec scene in the busiest city in the world, NYC. Here are some of the local professional groups based in Gotham.

• OWASP NY/NJ Chapter – The local chapter of the Open Web Application Security Project is a 100% volunteer group that is free for anyone to join (RSVPing might be required though). This local group features support from both local university advisors and law enforcement units. One presentation of note that came from this chapter is Pentesting Adobe Flex Applications. Join their mailing list here.
• ISSA, New York Metro – A non-profit security group that offers certification support, organizes chapter meetings and creates leadership opportunities for infosec professionals. Memberships include attendance to sponsored programs, the potential to earn at least 27 CPEs per year and valuable networking opportunities. Presentations are also welcome and two recent ones are Three Critical Factors for PCI Assessment and PCI Compliance and the Cloud. You can browse their other past presentations here.
• ISACA – New York Metro – With over 2,400 members, this ISACA chapter provides world-class training, networking events and certification opportunities for its members.
• IT Security Suite Network, New York Metro – A Microsoft Partner Network group that meets every second Thursday at the Microsoft NYC Office.
• NYC InfraGard – An NYC-based public-private initiative of the FBI to safeguard and promote information security.

And here are some local meetings that you might want to attend. These are mostly unstructured and held at a public venue.

• NYC2600 – A local group that meets monthly every first Friday of the month at the Citigroup Center. This is one of the groups in the 2600 magazine’s worldwide informal group network.
• NYSec – From the site: “An informal meetup of information security professionals in New York.” Meetings are every third tuesday of the month at 41 1st Ave. Dino Dai Zovi and Alex Sotirov are the contacts for this group.
• NYC4SEC – Their March Madness Roundtable is on Wednesday. Open the link for the all-important details.
  [Note: updated on March 2011]

If you think your actions speak louder, join or visit one of the many hackerspaces in the Metro.

• HTINK – Open to public membership, this space has a mission to educate the public on issues on tech as well as give access to resources to those who have none
• ITP – An academic space in NYU, this is a two-year graduate program that describes itself as the Center for the Recently Possible.
• Eyebeam – An art and technology center that has supported over 130 fellowships and residencies for artists and creative technologists.?
• Stratolab – Stratolab focuses on constructivist software and video games—learning new skills by creating things. We develop in-house games, and are also available for contract to build a serious games to promote your cause.
• NYC Resistor – This is a hacker collective located in a shared space in downtown Brooklyn.
• New York Hacking Society – A private hacking space that focuses mainly on the information security space. Click the link to email the group if you want to join.

Here are some of the more well-known conferences in the city you can go to during the year to chat up and get the latest security buzz.

• Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) – The HOPE conference has been going strong for the last 8 years, bringing together bright minds in the infosec industry under on roof, specifically Hotel Pennsylvania’s in NYC. It’s a conference run by 2600: The Hacker Quarterly and has featured a lot of great speakers like Richard Stallman, Adam Savage and Kevin Mitnick. This year, The Next Hope, features a lot of interesting stuff like free Segway trials, an Android app and a talk by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
• SC World Congress – This is an annual congress held in New York by SC Magazine and has a Security Innovators Throwdown, which is like American Inventor but with security technology.
• SummerCon – The latest ‘con was held in NYC and who know where it will spring up next. Hopefully it stays in New York, since the eclectic mix of booze, burlesque and backdooring seems to be one that local hackers enjoy.

If you’re ever in the Empire City and are hankering for some hacking, take your pick of any of the links above or contact us if you want some help.