It is no fun anymore, it is about money

On Thursday (1 October) in Hotel Bonbón in Bratislava the company TEMPEST organised a meeting of world leaders from the field of information security with managers of leading companies and organisations.

This the fourth annual Judgment Day conference focusing on trends, visions, the latest security threats, user behaviour and the tactics of cyber criminality. In real environments TEMPEST together with IT manufacturers pointed to the various ways of information leakage and introduced tools and procedures for guarding against it. The conference included speakers from IBM, McAfee, SafeNet, Symantec, Tripwire and TEMPEST. A key figure at the conference, who kick-started the block of speeches, was Ofer Valencio Akerman.

“It is no fun anymore, it is about money.” This was the core idea presented in the words of Ofer Akerman. For some time already threats and breaches to information systems have not been motivated by an effort to prove something, to be cool, but an effort to make maximum profit. Cyber criminality today is passing into the hands of organised groups, the goal of which is to make money through financial frauds, industrial espionage or through blackmailing. “Protection against threats consists of knowing your business and knowing and being able to eliminate risks that threaten it. Decisions must come from the management of companies, not just from IT and security specialists. Define and review risks, take specific steps not just on the level of technology, but also on the level of processes and user behaviour“, that is the advice of Ofer Akerman.

“Judgment Day shows that the perception of information security changes significantly at a time of crisis ?. At the first conference four years ago we looked at uncovering hacking. Today, together with our partners we present customers with the shift towards prevention, towards the process and psychological aspect of information security, or the shift towards enforcing the protection of persons and property. It is fairly simple to prevent an information leak if some unauthorised party is trying to get to it. Just imagine everything that could happen, though, if a party that is authorised to access data is motivated to stealing that data. If an authorised employee is under pressure or is being blackmailed, it could lead to damages that could endanger the very existence of your organisation,“ says General Director of TEMPEST, Peter Krásny.

The conference was attended by more than 80 representatives of companies from all over Slovakia, the media and public administration. The conference was organised by TEMPEST, with partners to the event IBM, McAfee, SafeNet, Symantec and Tripwire. For more information, visit www.tempest.eu.

Ofer Valencio Akerman has more than a decade of practical experience with the prevention of computer criminality and is an internationally recognised software architect in the field of data security and integrity. The solutions proposed by Akerman are used at the present time from the Middle East to Asia. Many of his solutions are currently being used by the Israeli armed forces against attacks and to defend against cyberterrorism. The same solutions are being examined by agents from the USA and other countries who undergo anti-terrorist training in Israel. Akerman has become an acknowledged top expert in computer security and provides consultations regarding issues of national defence for various organisations and authorities in Japan, Germany, New York, London and Latin America. The kind of topics that Akerman takes on from those interested – nations and international corporations – mostly deal with computer criminality and analyses of predictive behaviour. Akerman holds a master’s degree in the field of military strategy and leads international training on cyber security, business intelligence and preventive intelligence techniques in leading institutions.

TEMPEST is a leading systems integrator and leader on the market of information communication solutions and services. It boasts a team with over 17 years experience and employs over 230 experts. In its time on the Slovak market it has developed high levels of partnerships and received professional certification from large foreign companies operating in the IT field, such as Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Cisco Systems, Microsoft and other global producers. TEMPEST has implemented many successful and demanding information communication projects in the telecommunications, financial and industrial sectors, as well as in state administration. Its more prominent clients include the likes of Ministry of Transport, Post and Telecommunications SR, Ministry of Culture SR, Orange Slovensko, T-Mobile Slovensko, Tatra banka, Ľudová banka, Stredoslovenská energetika, gas utility SPP and refinery Slovnaft. In 2007 the company established a subsidiary in the Czech Republic, and in 2007 and 2008 its cumulative sales revenue passed the one billion Slovak koruna mark (33,2 mil. EUR). For more information, visit www.tempest.eu

Peter Šteruský, TEMPEST


Ofer Valencio Akerman, Cobradore


Andreas Gatz, Safenet


Michael Felber, Tripwire


Judgment Day IV, Bonbón Hotel