Thomas Ryan
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
Cyber Operations and Threat Intelligence, Provide Security, New Brunswick, NJ USA

Thomas Ryan is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Cyber Operations and Threat Intelligence for Provide Security LLC.  Mr. Ryan founded the company in December of 2009, in response to the rapidly growing demand for cyber security professionals in the world of increasing internet-based attacks, social media threats and cyber espionage.  In 2010, Mr. Ryan was widely recognized for the, "Robin Sage Experiment."  (Washington Times Online Article)  Through this experiment, Mr. Ryan drew the attention of professionals around the world as they were awakened by the dangers of social media today.  After creating a fictional persona online, Ryan's experiment proved how seemingly harmless details via social networking sites could be destructive to both an individual's protection and corporation's security as well.  Today, Mr. Ryan has expanded on his research to create customized programs to assist large corporations across industries to protect themselves from the risks that exist online today.

Prior to founding Provide Security, Mr. Ryan had worked for such organizations as Scholastic, Altria, The City of New York, Verisign, Foundstone, Cigital, as well building teams for NET2S (now BT-NET2S) and Vigilar (Intense School). As an independent consultant, Mr. Ryan has functioned as an ethical hacking instructor for various military and government agencies. Mr. Ryan's passion for information security has led to his involvement as Chapter Vice President for OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) NY in 2004 and Board Member for NJ Chapter in 2005.  His contributions include participating as a co-author of the OWASP Testing Guide, and speaking at several industry conferences including the BLACKHAT, OWASP, INFRAGARD, ICCS, and ISSA.

Mr. Ryan will discuss, When Hackers Attack: Protecting Your Online Identity.

The 2011 title, "The Year of the Hack", lives fully up to its name as major corporations and prominent individuals continue to fall prey to cyber crimes.  From the newspapers to the news channels, our eyes have been pried open and forced to recognize the growing cyber security threats from large faceless organizations including WikiLeaks and Anonymous.  Advance Persistent Threats (APT) compromise not only our data but also the integrity of our country. The one question that remains to be adequately answered still lingers: How do we protect our identity?

Our identity is the key to what makes us unique; it makes you different from me and us different from them. Identity is our most valuable and intangible possession and within this safe we call our identity, we bare our personal details.  In today's world, it is important to understand what to be open about, what to be discreet about and how to use social media to our advantage instead of our detriment.

This presentation will go into great detail regarding the ways in which information can be compromised in a matter of minutes. The accounts of these attacks have been documented from real life instances and are accompanied with an in depth analysis of what preventable measures may have been taken.  This presentation will transform your mind to think like the attacker.  Through a designed model that outlines why the attacker penetrates and the different methods used, the audience can become aware of how to prevent themselves from being the next victim.  While the media has taken the first step by making people aware of the threats, this presentation takes the next step by providing you with the most effective and progressive tools to safeguard your own identity.