Pacific Internet Conference (PacINET) 2007
FFA Conference Centre, Honiara, Solomon Islands
14-24 August, 2007 (attended from 20-24 August, 2007)
Chris Hammond-Thrasher, Library Systems Manager, USP
http://www.picisoc.org/
Funding agencies: Pacific Internet Partners (PIP) and USP (provided conference leave)
Conference overview
PacINET is the conference of the Pacific Internet Society (PICISOC), which is the Pacific region chapter
of the Internet Society (ISOC). This is the primary conference for inter-networking and related
technologies in the Pacific. The theme for the 2007 conference was Building National ICT Strategies.
Participation
My primary reason for attending the conference was to conduct a full-day (6 hour) workshop entitled
simply Information Security on 21 August. The session was well attended, ranging from 20 to 40
attendees, roughly 60% of whom were from the Solomon Islands. I also was able to attend a session
on email SPAM presented by APNIC, the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre, and to liaise with
regional ICT professionals on potentially establishing a Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team
(PacCERT) and Koha (an open source library management system) installations controlled by FFA and
SOPAC.
Regional contribution
Information Security expertise is lacking in the Pacific region. I believe that my workshop highlighted
the breadth and depth of the field as well as its importance to developing countries who are rushing to
join the global information economy. The informal feedback that I have received is very positive, and
my awareness raising efforts, combined with those of the others who presented on security topics,
seem to have initiated two important discussions. First, an attendee at my session, Caroline Greenway
of the Australian Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, has engaged
PICISOC in discussions regarding the establishment of a PacCERT. Secondly, the International
Information Systems Security Certification Consortium ((ISC)2), a professional organization to which I
belong, is planning to provide a keynote speaker and other sponsorship at PacINET 2008 in Rarotonga.
My session was also covered in the Solomon Star on 22 August, 2007.
Planned contribution in Fiji
I have made the complete slides of my workshop available on the Internet at
http://www.slideshare.net/thrashor/infosec-workshop-pacinet-2007/ . I would be interested in holding
a repeat session of the workshop in Suva jointly sponsored by USP, PICISOC, and the South Pacific
Computer Society.
Financial report
I am grateful to PIP for providing me with funding to attend half of the conference. I am also grateful to
USP for granting me the necessary conference leave. In the end, I had to cover a portion of my
expenses - to the order of a few hundred dollars - due to an unexpected rise in the cost of the airfare
from Nadi to Honiara.
Chris Hammond-Thrasher
USP Library Systems Manager
Blogger
6 September 2007