White-Hat Web Security of the Bay Area

Network security has made some major advances in the past couple decades, so much so, that is has become incredibly difficult to attack a well secured network perimeter as a means of accessing the data and systems contained therein. So it’s no wonder that malicious users have begun pursuing other avenues and skirting the perimeter defenses all together. From the attacker’s standpoint, breaching a network is all about economics and ROI. It just doesn’t make sense to mount an attack that will cost substantially more time and resources, when an easier path presents itself. How has this become possible? It’s simple, network defenses generally work in a very binary fashion; either a user is allowed access, or they are not. So when an administrator makes the decision to allow anonymous traffic into the network on port 80, they are inadvertently creating a tunnel through the perimeter defenses. This alone would not be an issue, but unfortunately, layer 7 has not received the same level of attention from the security industry as its layer 3 counterparts. With the majority of traffic on port 80 going unchecked, it makes far more sense to target the web servers behind the network as a primary entry point. Once a successful breach has occurred, the attacker can then utilize the compromised web server as a jumping point to the other systems within the network (completely bypassing perimeter defenses).

This group is intended to bring security conscious IT professionals together to both learn and discuss various topics as they relate to layer 7 security, and specifically Web Security. Events in this group will range from educational sessions, penetration testing tutorials, hacking demonstrations, hacking competitions and challenges, discussion panels, and hands on workshops. The content of the events will also range from advanced to beginner, the designation of which will be posted in the event description.

The primary audience for this group is web developers, but the information presented should be useful to a wide range of professionals. Advanced sessions are more likely to be code heavy and technical in nature, while beginner sessions will be higher level and focus more on concepts instead of examples and techniques.

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Recent Meetups

May 12, 2012 · 6:00 PM
Socializing and Security
5 White-Hats

It's been a while since the last meetup, and even though I don't necessarily have a good topic for this one, I figured it was about time. So I'm proposing a social... Learn more
January 19, 2012 · 6:00 PM
Security Discussion and Dinner at Amendment 21
11 White-Hats | 4.001

January is kind of a crazy month with everyone getting back into the swing of things after the holidays, so I figured we could do something a little lighter this time... Learn more
December 17, 2011 · 4:00 PM
Introductions
11 White-Hats | 4.001

Our first meetup event will be the 17th of December (although if other dates are more preferable, please let me know). While the start and end times are flexible, the... Learn more

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Benjamin Drasin joined
May 8

"I'm a programmer who has been doing a lot of work in the area of digital security over the last three years. Am interested in learning more about the field and finding out what people are doing."
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April 25

"Bio"
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KiDo joined
April 25

"I know nothing about hacking , and I'm trying to learn everything , all I wanna be is real white hat hacker."
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hip joined
April 21

"Hi , I'm security Researcher and pentester , I like pursue new skill. I always collect about security news in http://insight-labs.org/wiki/"
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Paul West Jauregui started Job Opportunity: Security Consultant (Manager) at Praetorian — San Francisco area
April 9

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Paul West Jauregui joined
April 9

"Dedicated to helping the world's leading companies achieve risk management success."
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Lee joined
March 30

"I’ve been involved (at work & at play) in the information security field for many years. My interests include: Live OS - MS Windows, Linux & GNU, BSD, OS-X, Android, Embedded OS Technologies, Application Whitelisting, polymorphic Behavior & others."
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Sankar Sundarapandian joined
March 15

"I work with Adobe in the Flash Player security team. I have been fascinated by security for 3 years now and am looking forward to sharing and gathering some security knowledge."
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Abhijeet Prabhune joined
March 8

"Technology Evangelist."