AthCon3 (2012) was a pleasant surprise - Kris and Kyp and their crew did a great job putting it all together so nicely!

It was a very technical, 1-track 2-day conference in Athens, or better said in a very nice green&quiet country club right outside of Athens.

I have been surprised also by the following facts:

• the audience was mostly young professionals
• the number of attendees was pretty impressive for a hacker/security scene which is not much advertising itself
• the audience definitely featured a pool of both raw and polished talent which could be a gold mine for headhunters

[More:]

If you are a student and didn’t attend the event, this is what you missed

• the student price of 70 eur was very attractive
• you got a geeky (very geeky ) t-shirt
• you got free drinks, coffee
• you got free lunch
• you got free access to the after-party, with Keith Meyers rolling the dices on the turn-table, and unlimited drinks

The conference also featured a CTF and surprisingly the second place in the admin category was taken by a 12 years old kid - new generation FTW!

Here are some of my notes on some of the talks (not particular order):

• AthCon3 2012 Day1, Track1, 14:00-14:50 “PostScript: Danger Ahead”
• AthCon3 2012 Day2, Track1, 18:00-18:50 “Advances in BeEF: RESTful API, WebSockets, XssRays enhancements”
• AthCon3 2012 Day2, Track1, 14:00-14:50 “Why rootkits suck”
• AthCon3 2012 Day2, Track1, 11:00-11:50 “Smart Meter PLC - Communication Security worth 0.37 EUR”
• AthCon3 2012 Day1, Track1, 18:00-18:50 “0-Day - Comodo did it again”
• AthCon3 2012 Day1, Track1, 17:30-17:50 “Exploitation Toolkit Codename: Icarus” First Part
• AthCon3 2012 Day1, Track1, 15:00-15:50 “Venue into my work uncovering and exploiting zero days vulnerabilities and advanced fuzzing techniques”
• AthCon3 2012 Day1, Track1, 12:00-12:50 “Packing Heat!”

Conclusion: if you are a young student in Greece or nearby, but even if you are not, head-on bravely to this conference - it’s the best you can get for the money!

Things I liked during the conference:

• as Ian said “I like this conference!” and I agree - the cold drinks (perfect for enjoying them under the lounge&umbrella setups in the big garden of the venue) kept coming while lounging under umbrellas
• the weather was just perfect during both day and night (a walk after a coffee at 01:00 was just perfect!)
• the smell of blossoming oranges on streets of Athens and Kifisia was just a killer - reminds me so much about those 5 splendid years in Cyprus
• the speaker’s hotel was “Hotel 21″ - a very cozy and modern boutique hotel, featuring… 21 rooms (of course ), very nicely designed and maintained - if you ever have a chance to lodge in, don’t hesitate to try it out!

Securely yours,
Andrei