No, I’m not making a list, checking it twice, nor watching you while you’re sleeping, but I am coming to San Francisco for the 2009 RSA Conference. I’m not often on the West Coast so if you’ve ever wanted to talk with me, meet me, pick my brain, buy me lots of beer, or simply ask about the story behind the crazy picture I took of myself whilst on vacation (the one in this post), you’ll finally have your chance.

Please contact me at andrewsmhay [at] gmail [dot] com (you know what to remove to make the email work) to arrange a time to talk/meet.

Last week, Alan Shimel posted that he had a free Black Hat DC ticket to give away to a worthy reader of his blog. The winning commenter was Will Chatham with this entry:

I’ve never been to a convention because they always hold them out west or way up north. This one, however, is not unreasonably far from me (I’m in NC), and being an aspiring security professional, I think it would help me in numerous ways, from networking with people to learning more about the field. You don’t know me from Jack, but you would make someone’s year if you chose me!

My entry, which was far superior (in my opinion :P), explains how I had never been to a major conference and that I was a poor Canadian – a hard sell when people find out you live in Bermuda. In all truthfulness, I have never had the excess cash to be able to attend one of these major events and the companies that I have worked for have never seen them as important (i.e. Important for Andrew != Important for company). In terms of career development, I see these conferences as a way to meet peers and colleagues, enhance knowledge, and grow as a person. Hopefully, now that I’m in a new role that supports my views, I can hit up more conferences in the near future….as soon as this damn economy figures itself out that is.

Wow.

I was pleased to find out that Richard Bejtlich, venerable security guru and book reviewer, has named the OSSEC Host-Based Intrusion Detection Guide one of his “Best Book Bejtlich Read in 2008“. This is quite an honor from such a tough reviewer.

From the blog post:

OSSEC HIDS by Rory Bray, Daniel Cid and Andrew Hay. I have to congratulate the author team for OHG. Writing a book for Syngress with many contributors is usually a recipe for disaster. OHG features three lead authors, four contributors, and one foreword author — and they don’t step on each others’ toes.

Thanks Richard!

The original review can be found here.