Greetings from Special Ops East, fresh from the District and another ShmooCon. If you want to read a good recap, check out Richard Bejtlich's posting(s) on the TaoSecurity blog or just go to the ShmooCon site.

Our take is that, unfortunately, a great deal of the material presented this weekend sounded eerily familiar, and it isn't necessarily because we were at Black Hat and RSA. We like Shmoo, but the real advantage for us is meeting and interacting with other people in the industry. We recently had a client ask us what sorts of things we do to stay current in the field of security and attending events like ShmooCon is high on that list. You want to check out what other people are working on, what you need to be worried about, or what you haven't even considered! That's what gets you through the coming year, not the exploit or tool du jour.

The best conference stories always start out, “So I had drinks/lunch/dinner/a soda with so-and-so and we discussed (insert utility/research/project/methodology here).” We'd like to see more of the big shows incorporate social and collaborative elements to facilitate more of this kind of interaction between attendees. Shmoo definitely seems to have the right idea with the ShmooCon labs and “Hack or Halo” events. There are also plenty of regional discussion groups like Nova Sec (here in the DC area) whose sole purpose is this kind of collaboration.

If we have one piece of advice for you coming out of ShmooCon, this is it- find one of these groups in your area and start going to meetings! And at the next con, find Steve and introduce yourself; the drinks are on him.

Don't you just hate having your Plasma TV remote, the DVD remote, the entertainment system remote, the DirecTV remote, and your Mac Mini remote all strewn about on the coffee table? What's worse is when the remotes (on their own power) march from the table to hide in between the cushions of the sofa. Wouldn't it be great to have the remotes easily accessible and centimeters away from you at all times while you enjoy the latest round of American Idol? Well thankfully someone (some very lonely and insane person) has invented the Multimedia Remote Control Wrangler. Finally -- a way to combine your love for wrestling (or athletic supporters) with Velcro and remote controls. I love the 21st century.

This year's ShmooCon (held March 23-25) sold out within 5 hours. Two of our lucky DC office staff were able to nab tickets but most of us were shut out... again. This is an excellent "con" (no pun intended) and it's a shame that it sells out so quickly each year. Look for folks handing out Special Ops Security t-shirts at the Wardman Park Marriott Hotel and introduce yourself to the two lucky devils!

We're quite excited to annouce a major expansion with the opening of our Washington, D.C. office, located just outside the nation's capital in Alexandria, Virginia. A dramatic increase in demand for services necessitated the addition of an east coast practice, which will be staffed with expert security consultants from the DC metropolitan area. Led by principal security consultants Mark Orlando and Ryan Shaw, the new east coast staff has a background of proven success in services and operations within the commercial and federal security spaces, and will be managed by two principal consultants with over 20 years of combined experience in information security. Given 2007 projections for new and ongoing engagements, the east coast team plans to more than double the size of the new division over the next twelve months. Check out our press release from March 1st, submitted to newspapers on both coasts.