Malware & Reverse Engineering Conference 2023

Following the easing of pandemic restrictions we are pleased to announce that the Malware & Reverse Engineering Conference will be held on Monday and Tuesday, 20-21 of February, 2023. We will provide high quality speakers as in previous conferences in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017,2018 and 2019 .

MRE-2023 is a bridge between industry, law enforcement and academia, with a strong focus on practical results from research and development projects in malware reversing.

The conference aims to cover:

Threat intelligence
Incident response
Binary program analysis, and reverse engineering
Behavioural and attribution analysis of malware
Impacts into the financial sector and government agencies
Advanced monitoring schemes for Malware attacks

Venue

Microsoft,
Coffey Room Theatre,
Level 5 / 4 Freshwater Place,
Southbank,
Melbourne CBD.

Registration

Registration for MRE 2023 (20-21/02/2023) is now open, and tickets are available from Eventbrite,

2023 program and keynote speakers

The speakers for MRE 2023 ha) ve all come forward, however, if you are prepared to wait on ny potential speaker drop outs, please contact Dr Paul Black.

Thomas Roccia - Microsoft

Thomas Roccia is Senior Security Researcher at Microsoft. He works in the Defender team to improve detection and research novel techniques. Previously Thomas was working at McAfee in the Advanced Threat Research team. He worked on threat intelligence, tracking cybercrime campaigns, and collaborated with law enforcement agencies. He performed worldwide incident response, malware hunting, and helped customers during major outbreaks. He speaks regularly at security conferences. The title of Thomas' keynote talk is:Binary Instrumentation for Malware Analysis: Practical Tools and Techniques.

Chathura Abeydeera - KPMG

Chathura is a Director in the Forensic practice of KPMG Australia where he leads the Cyber Attack and Response services. He is a highly technical Cyber security practitioner with over 20 years’ experience in offensive Cybersecurity and Incident Response. He is a CREST Certified Tester and an examination assessor for the CREST International. He is also an advisory board member of CREST Australasia. He has delivered complex technical Cyber security assessment programs and Incident Response engagements for a number of high profile Australian and global organisations. The title for Chathura's keynote talk is: Keep Calm and Respond: An Adversarial Mindset Approach to Incident Response.

Matt Tett - Enex Test Lab

Matt Tett is the Managing Director of Enex TestLab (Enex Pty Ltd). He is well known globally across industry and government as a very well connected, highly technical straight shooter. Effectively applying science to translating complex technology for the lay person, ensuring customers receive what they are paying for. Enex TestLab’ objective is to use science to keep tech vendors honest by rigorously testing their product claims and ensuring consumer requirements are met factually. The title of Matt's keynote talk is:IoT Security Trust Mark ~ Securing Connected Devices ~ >15 Years of Lessons Learned.

Speakers

The confirmed speakers for MRE 2023 include:

Name	Organisation	Topic
Chathura Abeydeera	KPMG	Keep Calm and Respond: An Adversarial Mindset Approach to Incident Response
Sharif Abuadbba	Data61	Malware Field: Insights and Trends from the Top 4 Security Conferences
Scott Ainslie	University of Melbourne	The use of traditional intelligence in cyber defence practices: a research agenda.
Tao Ban	NICT Japan	Research on IoT Anti-Malware Technologies Beyond CPU Architectures
Stephen Chey	IBM	Democratising Cybersecurity Skills
Negar Shabab	Microsoft	Malicious Browser Extensions - How important they are, and how to analyse them
Gyle Dela Cruz		Demystifying OSINT for a Future SOC Analyst
Karl Denton	Cybermerc	Can we script it? Scripting Malware Analysis
Priya Gnanasekaran	Lab3	Web3 Security: Navigating the Risks and Rewards of the Decentralised Web
Daisuke Inoue	NICT Japan (Virtual)	Cybersecurity Activities in Japan for Security IoT Environment
Joarder Kamruzzaman	Federation University	Robust Malware Detection Using Adversarial Retraining
Jemima Middis	Monash University (NZ virtual)	The Biggest Bugs in the Net - An Assessment of Ransomware Attacks Targeting Australian Big Business
Jon Oliver	VmWare	Handling Alert Fatigue at Scale using a Combination of Machine Learning and Fast Search
David Ormrod & Jamie Norton	McGrathNicol	Malware and Threat Intelligence Economies and their impact on cybersecurity risks
Sean Park	Trend Micro	A Day of the Adversary Hunter
Thomas Roccia	Microsoft	Binary Instrumentation for Malware Analysis: Practical Tools and Techniques
Matt Tett	Enex Test Lab	IoT Security Trust Mark - Securing Connected Devices - 15 Years of Lessons Learned
Alex Rohl & Chris Davey	University of Adelaide & University of Southern Queensland	Automated Protocol Reverse Engineering using Deep Learning and Heuristics
Noushin Shabab	Kaspersky	Topic Trooper - Targets High Profile Victims Using Newly Discovered MQTT Backdoor
Paul Watters	Ionize	Industry-Academic Collaboration with an ICSL Retrospective
Yang Xiang	Swinburne	Software Vulnerability Detection by Fuzzing and Deep Learning

2023 Organising Committee

Our organising committee is composed of security researchers and engineers from academia and industry.

Paul Pang, Chair - Acting Director, ICSL, Federation University Australian,
Paul Black - Post Doctoral Fellow - Cybersecurity, ICSL,
Joarder Kamruzzaman, Co-Director, Centre of Smart Analytics,
Iven Mareels - Executive Dean, Institute of Innovation, Science and Sustainability,
Syed Islam - Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation),
Alana Auden, Research Centre Support Officer - Research Services,
Pooja Mishra - Masters by research, - Cybersecurity, ICSL.
Thomas Roccia - Senior Security Researcher, Microsoft,
Stephanie Williams - Principal Information Security Consultant, Westpac,

Internet Commerce Security Laboratory (ICSL)