ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY, Oct 2016 "Security: Metadata & Operations Security"
I had the good fortune to address Phil Simon's class
on how metadata influences security and data privacy. It also lead to this blog
post on metadata related security issues the SAS website.
TALK: DEFCON XXIII
DEFCON XXIII, Aug 2015 "Applied Intelligence: Using Information That's Not There"
Organizations continue to unknowingly leak trade secrets on the Internet. To those in the know,
these leaks are a valuable source of competitive intelligence. This talk describes how the speaker
collects competitive intelligence for his own online retail business. Specifically, you learn how
he combines, trends, and analyzes information within specific contexts to manufacture useful data
that is real, but technically doesn't exist on it's own. For example, you will learn about the trade
secrets that are hidden within sequential numbers, how he uses collected intelligence to procure inventory,
and how and why he gauges the ongoing health of his industry and that of his competitors. And on a related
note, you'll also learn how the federal government nearly exposed an entire generation to identity fraud.
TALK: DEFCON XXII
DEFCON XXII, Aug 2014 "You're Leaking Trade Secrets"
Networks don't need to be hacked for information to be compromised. This is particularly true for organizations that are trying to keep trade
secrets. While we hear a lot about personal privacy, little is said in regard to organizational privacy. Organizations, in fact, leak information
at a much greater rate than individuals, and usually do so with little fanfare. There are greater consequences for organizations when information
is leaked because the secrets often fall into the hands of competitors. This talk uses a variety of real world examples to show how trade secrets
are leaked online, and how organizational privacy is compromised by seemingly innocent use of The Internet.
BOOK SIGNING: BlackHat 2014
BlackHat 2014 August, 2014
It was great meeting new and old readers at my two book signings at the BlackHat 2014 security conference at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
KEYNOTE: SECURE COMPUTING FORUM, DUBLIN IRELAND
Secure Computing Forum, Dublin Ireland, March 13, 2014 "Leaking Trade Secrets: A Conversation with Michael Schrenk"
Online Privacy for Organizations.
TALK: DEFCON XXI
DEFCON XXI, Aug 2012 "How my Botnet Purchased Millions of Dollars in Cars and Defeated the Russian Hackers"
This is the true story of a botnet that created a competitive advantage for a car
dealership. This dealership found a website that offered returned lease vehicles—great
cars for their inventory—but bad web design and heavy competition from other automotive
dealerships made the website useless. In response, a botnet was developed to make automotive
purchases with machine precision. With the bot, they could acquire any cars they wanted,
without interference from competing dealerships. During its one-year life, this botnet
autonomously acquired many millions of dollars in cars. Along the way, it successfully
adjusted to competition from a similar bot developed by Russian hackers while maintaining a
sufficiently low profile to "stay below the radar" of everyone involved.
The primary focus on the talk was that the more transparency the writer has with the audience, the better the work.
In other words, you'll be more successful when your personal reason for writing is in alignment with the topic.
TALK: O'REILLY WEB CAST
O'Reilly Web Cast, Mar 2012 "Webbots, Spiders, and Screen Scrapers"
This one-hour web cast was in anticipation of my upcoming book of the same title. There were over 600 attendees in the
live audience.
TALK: BBC TELEVISION
BBC Television, London UK, Oct 2010 "The Hidden Internet"
A lecture to the BBC Digital Media Group on less known ways of conducting Data-Based Journalism.
TALK: CENTRE FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM, LONDON UK
Centre for Investigative Journalism--City College, London UK, Oct 2010 "The Web Investigator"
A two-day lecture on unconventional ways to conduct online research.
TALK: DEFCON XVII, LAS VEGAS NV
DEFCON XVII, Las Vegas NV, Aug 2010 "Screen Scraper Tricks, Difficult Cases"
Screen scrapers and data mining bots often encounter problems when extracting data from modern websites. Obstacles like AJAX discourage many bot writers from completing screen scraping projects. The good news is that you can overcome most challenges if you learn a few tricks.
This session describes the (sometimes mind numbing) roadblocks that can come between you and your ability to apply a screen scraper to a website. You'll discover simple techniques for extracting data from websites that freely employ DHTML, AJAX, complex cookie management as well as other techniques. Additionally, you will also learn how "agencies" create large scale CAPTCHA solutions.
All the tools discussed in this talk are available for free, offer complete customization and run on multiple platforms.
Quoted from the DEFCON XV program
You can watch Michael Schrenk's DEFCON 17 talk here.
DATA JOURNALISM: CENTRE FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM, LONDON UK
Centre for Investigative Journalism--City College, London UK, Jul 2010 "The Web Investigator"
A two-day lecture on unconventional ways to conduct online research.
TALK: OWASP LOS ANGELES CHAPTER
OWASP Los Angeles Chapter, Mar 2010 "Creating Competitive Advantages with Webbots"
I was the featured speaker at this Los Angeles Chapter meeting of the OWASP
DATA JOURNALISM: CENTRE FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM, LONDON UK
Centre for Investigative Journalism--City College, London UK, Jul 2009 "Summer School 2009"
I presented a series of lectures on unconventional ways to conduct online research
For The Centre for Investigative Journalism at City College, London.
TALK: PRIVATE EVENT, ZURICH SWITZERLAND
Private Corporate Event, Zurich, Switzerland, Jul 2008"Online Project Tracking"
Presented the plans and current status of a custom project tracking software use to track resources applied to projects and to
calculate bonuses.
TALK: PRIVATE EVENT, SHARM EL SHIEKH EGYPT
Private Corporate Event, Sharm el Shiekh Egypt, Apr 2008 "Into the Cloud"
Lectured on the benefits of moving corporate reporting and documentation from Excel spreadsheets and FTP servers to web
accessible cloud-based services. I shared the stage with author Joseph Pine ("The Experience Economy")
TALK: PRIVATE EVENT, CASA BLANCA MOROCCO
Private Corporate Event, Casa Blanca Morocco, Sep 2008"Online Techniques for Distributed Organizations"
I presented on several techniques for organizations to connect with a distributed workforce.
TALK: DEFCON XV, LAS VEGAS NV
DEFCON XV, Las Vegas NV, Aug 2007"The Executable Image Exploit"
The "Executable Image Exploit" lets you insert
a dynamic program into any community
website that allows references to off-domain
images; like MySpace or eBay. By uploading
the following line of HTML to a community
website, <img src="http://www.mydomain.
com/executable.jpg"> you can launch a
dynamic program that masquerades as a
static image and capable of reading and
writing cookies, analyzing referrer (and other
browser) variables and access databases. It is
even possible to create an image the causes a
browser to execute JavaScript.
Quote from the DEFCON XV program
This lecture described how to disguise computer programs as online images that may be used to gather specific metrics. I
also talked about how these methods were used to help a Private Investigator track an online stalker.
You can watch Michael Schrenk's DEFCON 15 talk here.
TALK: DCPHP, WASHINGTON DC
DCPHP, Washington DC, Oct 2006 "Developing Webbots with PHP"
This presentation highlighted the benefits of writing webbots in PHP/CURL. In addition to explaining how to capitalize on
flaws in the current client/server model used by the web, attention was paid to methods for downloading and parsing media.
I was very proud that I went on directly after Rasmus Lerdorf, who got the PHP project off the ground in 1995.
TALK: DEFCON XI, LAS VEGAS NV
DEFCON XI, Las Vegas NV, Aug 2003 "Online Corporate Intelligence"
In this presentation, I enlarged on the previous year's pretension to show how automation can improve Corporate
Competitive Intelligence.
DEFCON X, Las Vegas NV, Aug 2002 "An Introduction to Writing Webbots and Spiders"
You can have a lot of fun with the Internet by ditching your
browser in favor of writing special purpose programs that look
for or do very specific things on the Internet. This session
will equip you with techniques to extract and interact with
data from web sites without a browser, parse and filter data,
follow links, deal with encryption and passwords, and
manage terabytes of information. You'll also learn why writing
these programs is a useful activity, and walk away with ideas
and abilities to write useful spiders or web agents of your own
design.
From the DEFCON X program
Follow the link for more information on Michael Schrenk's DEFCON 10 Talk.
Competitive
Intelligence
You have a responsibility to know as much as possible about your competition and markets.
Counter-
Intelligence
How much information are you giving your competition? Do you have Organizational Privacy policies?
Training &
Speaking
Well informed employees are your only true path to Organizational Privacy.
Online
Automation
Many online processes can be automated for efficiency and cost savings.
Copyright Michael Schrenk 2024, all rights reserved.
Screen scrapers and data mining bots often encounter problems when extracting data from modern websites. Obstacles like AJAX discourage many bot writers from completing screen scraping projects. The good news is that you can overcome most challenges if you learn a few tricks.
This session describes the (sometimes mind numbing) roadblocks that can come between you and your ability to apply a screen scraper to a website. You'll discover simple techniques for extracting data from websites that freely employ DHTML, AJAX, complex cookie management as well as other techniques. Additionally, you will also learn how "agencies" create large scale CAPTCHA solutions.
All the tools discussed in this talk are available for free, offer complete customization and run on multiple platforms.
