Langara is a local college offering degrees in a number of subjects, including Computer Studies. I know one of the instructors there, and he asked me to give a talk at their monthly Computer Tech meetup. As a topic, I picked Simple Principles for Website Security, a shorter version of talks I’ve given at the XML Summer School.
Apart from the fact that I was recovering from a bout with the virulent stomach bug that seemed to be going round Vancouver at the time, it was fun. A good bunch of people, decent questions, and the student newspaper took advantage of the opportunity to write a column and make a video about basic internet security. One of my aims in this talk is to make the audience paranoid, pointing out sometimes the bad guys really are out to get you, and talking a bit about risk analysis and the trade-offs involved in writing down strong passwords (using a password manager is better, of course). And the door prizes for Langara students were quite impressive!
Thanks to Raymond for inviting me, and Gail and Holly for organising everything. I put the slides up at slideshare if you’re interested.