Hi,

This is an update on the Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) sessions that are being held at the 1998 FIRST Conference in Monterrey, Mexico. BOF sessions are informal gatherings of people who are interested in talking over issues on the same topic.

I have appended a listing of the currently confirmed BOF sessions for Monterrey. The allocated time for BOF discussions is 19:00-21:00 Wednesday, June 24, 1998.

A BOF timetable will also be displayed at the conference (this will include the rooms where the BOFs are being held). Please check the conference BOF timetable for the latest details when you arrive. I'll make sure it's in an easy to find location :)

Each BOF is listed with the topic, session leader, and starting time.

If you have any specific issues you'd like to raise during a BOF you'll be attending you may wish to contact that BOF's session leader and let them know. This will give them an idea of what people are interested in.

BOF topic:
Issues for new Computer Security Incident Response Teams
Session leader:
Moira J West-Brown <mjw@cert.org>
Start time:
19:00
Any questions that new CSIRT teams may have about forming their team, or the FIRST membership process.

BOF topic:
SPAMMING and other Internet abuses
Session leader:
Gary Garb <garygarb@unn.unisys.com>
Start time:
19:00

BOF topic:
Insider abuse of Internet resources
Session leader:
Gary Garb <garygarb@unn.unisys.com>
Start time:
20:00
Including obvious privacy issues for organizations who wish to monitor employee use.

BOF topic:
Organizational problems of incident response teams
Session leader:
Suzana Stojakovic-Celustka <Suzana.Stojakovic-Celustka@CARNet.hr>
Starting Time:
19:00
The discussion should concentrate on the problems which are not country/constituency specific, but common to majority of teams. The solutions of problems which worked or didn't work should be discussed too.

It's not too late to host a BOF session if you have a topic you think people are interested in talking about. Please let me know if there's something you'd like to discuss which isn't listed above. The BOFs are fairly informal and don't necessarily need any preparation ... but they do at least need someone to stand up the front and get everyone talking :)

In addition, can people who are interesting in attending a particular BOF please send me a short email saying which BOF you'd like to attend. This is simply so we can gauge numbers to make sure the rooms will be adequate sizes.

Thanks!

BOF Coordinator,
Eric Halil <eric@auscert.org.au>