AusCERT 2011: Magic and music light up AusCERT awards

Magic performances and laughter set the tone for the 10th annual AusCERT security awards dinner.

The awards, which began poolside at the Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast, are designed to recognise Australian professionals who work at the frontline of information security.

AusCERT general manager, Graham Ingram, said that 10 years ago he never would have dreamed that a security conference would grow to the level it is at now.

“We can come together and celebrate the achievements of our colleagues over the year," said Ingram. "We want the awards to grow and maybe one day they will become more important than the conference itself.”

The magic and dance stylings of duo, Soul Mystique, got the crowd’s attention before comedian and keynote speaker, Bennett Arron, took to the stage. His tale of identity theft was one of the talking points of the conference. In addition, self-confessed nerd band Tripod performed the unofficial AusCERT song 'Girl in a Comic Book Store' and joked that they had been able to write new material since the Sony Playstation Network hack took place.

The AusCERT award winners were:

Individual Excellence in Information Security: Wade Alcorn (NGS Secure)

AusCERT conference chair, Claire Groves, said Alcorn was recognised for his ability to engage people and the way he promoted information security.

Organisational Excellence in Information Security: Australian Taxation Office.

The ATO was selected because of its proactive work against fraudulent activity targeting Australians.

Best Security Initiative: Google

Google won because of its work to protect users from malicious Web pages by implementing the Google safe browsing alerts for network administrators.

This was followed by the SC Magazine award winners.

Vendor of the Year: Sourcefire

Product of the Year: Imperva SecureSphere

Innovation Award: VMInformer Professional

Protector Award: M86 Security Secure Web Gateway

Gatekeeper Award: NetWitness NextGen for forensics

Best SME Security Solution: McAfee endpoint protection.

Hamish Barwick travelled to AusCERT 2011 as a guest of AusCERT

Got a security tip-off? Contact Hamish Barwick at hamish_barwick at idg.com.au

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