Kicking off proceedings was Dr. Andrew Clark from CERT Australia (the Australian Government’s Computer Emergency Response Team) who highlighted the many challenges in cyber crime that the Asia Pacific region faces, and how collaboration with neighbouring countries is helping those efforts.

Industry veteran Graham Cluley reminisced on his more than 20 year career with tales of some of the first viruses and malware, many of which now seem so harmless compared to today’s standards.  He also included an amusing rendition of what he calls the “Anti Virus Industry Song”.

“Why can’t we have a virus called ‘Lumpy Trousers’?”, quipped Graham Cluley at one point in the conference, but there was no shortage of interestingly named threats during the conference – such as Dragonfly, Citadel, and even Chuck Norris.

The topic of the Internet of Things inevitably emerged, including discussion of vulnerabilities affecting hundreds of thousands of Internet router and gateway devices used by homes and businesses globally.  Hardware manufacturers were reminded once again not to build devices with backdoors, and to implement better security by design.

As the two day event concluded, a number of industry veterans took to the stage with their musical instruments to rock into the night, entertaining delegates and proving just how collaborative and supportive the Anti-Virus industry is as we all do our best to protect the world from the scourge of malware and online threats.