Thursday, October 30, 2003   Back to top
9:00 a.m.–10:30 a.m.
PAPERS California Room Difficult Tasks Made Easier Session Chair: Elizabeth D. Zwicky, Great Circle Associates EasyVPN: IPsec Remote Access Made Easy Mark C. Benvenuto and Angelos D. Keromytis, Columbia University The Yearly Review, or How to Evaluate Your Sys Admin Carrie Gates and Jason Rouse, Dalhousie University Peer Certification: Techniques and Tools for Reducing System Admin Support Burdens While Improving Customer Service Stacy Purcell, Sally Hambridge, David Armstrong, Tod Oace, Matt Baker, and Jeff Sedayao, Intel Corp.	INVITED TALKS 1 San Diego Room Panel: Myth or Reality? Studies of System Administrators Moderators: Jeff R. Allen, Tellme Networks, Inc.; Eser Kandogan, IBM Research Panelists: Nancy Mann, Sun Microsystems, has specialized in solving complex user interface design problems for system management, such as patch installation and user management. Paul Maglio, IBM Research, a researcher and manager of the Human-Systems Research Group, studies how people think about and use information. Kristyn Greenwood, Oracle, has conducted usability evaluations and ethnographic studies to gain insight into what DBAs do and has also participated in the design of a variety of thin client interfaces for managing large-scale enterprise systems. Cynthia DuVal, IBM Software, performs ethnographic research to support integration design and the design of collaboration tools, currently focusing on application administration work practices, interaction design, and emerging technology.	INVITED TALKS 2 Golden West Room Spam Mini Symposium, Part 1 Chairs: Dan Klein, USENIX, assisted by Deeann Mikula, Consultant Unsolicited email has reached epidemic proportions, and some say that it threatens the very concept of email. This symposium will consider the "Spam Problem" and provide insights into the spam explosion, as well as the latest practical techniques for dealing with it. The first part of this mini-symposium will consist of two presentations covering general principles and recent research, presented by independent spam experts. Emerging Spam-Fighting Techniques Robert Haskins, Computer Net Works, Inc.; Rob Kolstad, SAGE New techniques for fighting spam have been developed recently and have been paid increasing attention this year. This talk will discuss new developments in spam detection and suppression, focusing on the promising approach dubbed Bayesian filtering. Adaptive Filtering: One Year On John Graham-Cumming, ActiveState Is adaptive filtering just a toy for tech-savvy desktop users? With over a year since Bayesian spam filters became popular, this talk looks at how well Bayesian spam filtering is working and the challenges in applying it to corporate/enterprise environments (rather than just to individual users). In addition, the talk will summarize some of the ways spammers have attempted to circumvent these new adaptive filters.	GURU SESSIONS Royal Palm Salon 1/2 PKI/Cryptography Greg Rose, QUALCOMM, Inc. Greg Rose is a VP of Technology for QUALCOMM International, based in Australia, where he works on cryptographic security and authentication for third-generation mobile phones and other technologies. He holds a number of patents for cryptographic methods and has successfully cryptanalyzed widely deployed ciphers. Some of his papers and free software are available at https://www.qualcomm.com.au.
10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.   Exhibit Hall Open (Golden Ballroom)
10:30 a.m.–11:00 a.m.   Break in the Exhibit Hall (Golden Ballroom)
11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
PAPERS California Room Emerging Theories of System Administration Session Chair: Æleen Frisch, Exponential Consulting ISconf: Theory, Practice, and Beyond Luke Kanies, Reductive Consulting, LLC Seeking Closure in an Open World: A Behavioral Agent Approach to Configuration Management Alva Couch, John Hart, Elizabeth G. Idhaw, and Dominic Kallas, Tufts University Archipelago: A Network Security Analysis Tool Tuva Stang, Fahimeh Pourbayat, Mark Burgess, Geoffrey Canright, Kenth Engø, and Åsmund Weltzien, Oslo University College	INVITED TALKS 1 San Diego Room Coping with the Disappearance of Network Boundaries Speaker: Peyton Engel, Berbee Session Chair: Lynda True, Northrop Grumman It's getting more and more difficult for administrators of networks, servers, and applications to tell where their duties begin and end. Technologies such as wireless networking, VPNs, distributed computing, and load-balancing gear are eroding the boundaries that have defined some traditional I/T roles. As organizations begin to incorporate these new technologies, security is frequently a casualty, simply because these tools can undermine the familiar conceptual frameworks we use for evaluating risk. This talk will demonstrate that the techniques needed to cope with the present family of emerging threats have existed for some time, and will offer insight into the kind of networked services that will be best positioned to prosper in an atmosphere where familiar defenses continue to erode.	INVITED TALKS 2 Golden West Room Spam Mini Symposium, Part 2 Panel Discussion: Current Best Practices and Forthcoming Advances Laura Atkins, SpamCon Foundation John Graham-Cumming, ActiveState Robert Haskins, Computer Net Works, Inc. Rob Kolstad, SAGE Daniel Quinlan, Spam Assassin Ken Schneider, Brightmail This session has two parts. First, representatives from three anti-spam software projects will briefly highlight the latest innovations in their products. After these short presentations, the speakers from the first session will join them for a question-and-answer panel about the best methods for dealing with spam, both now and in the near future.	GURU SESSIONS Royal Palm Salon 1/2 Linux Bdale Garbee, HP Linux and Open Source Lab/Debian Bdale is the former Debian Project Leader and currently works at HP helping to make sure Linux will work well on future HP systems. His background includes many years of both UNIX internals and embedded systems work. He helped jump-start ports of Debian GNU/Linux to 5 architectures other than i386. When Bdale isn't busy keeping his basement computer farm, full of oddball systems running Linux, working, he's busy with amateur radio, mostly likely building amateur satellites.
12:30 p.m.–2:00 p.m.   Lunch (on your own)
2:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m.
PAPERS California Room Practicum: Unusual Techniques from the Front Lines Session Chair: Mario Obejas, Raytheon Three Practical Ways to Improve Your Network Kevin Miller, Carnegie Mellon University Tossing Packets Over the Wall Using Transmit-Only Ethernet Cables Jon Meek and Frank Colosimo, Wyeth The Realities of Deploying Desktop Linux Bevis King, Roger Webb, and Graeme Wilford, University of Surrey	INVITED TALKS 1 San Diego Room Security vs. Science: Changing the Security Culture of a National Lab Speaker: Rémy Evard, Argonne National Laboratory Session Chair: Elizabeth Zwicky, Great Circle Associates Two years ago, Argonne National Laboratory had continual security problems and was rated very poorly in several federal security audits, with potentially devastating consequences. Today, the Laboratory has a strong security environment that passed its most recent audit with flying colors. And, despite many fears, Argonne scientists are still able to collaborate with colleagues around the world. This talk will tell the story of the Laboratory's about-face. It will cover tools, practical techniques, policies, lessons learned, and mistakes to avoid.	INVITED TALKS 2 Golden West Room Talking to the Walls (Again) Speaker: Mark Burgess, Oslo University College Session Chair: David Blank-Edelman, Northeastern University Within a decade the dream of pervasive computing will be a reality. Computers will be built into almost every device. Houses will be designed like computing ecologies, wired throughout. Surfaces will be interactive, and wireless communication will bind us to this infra-structure. What scientific and technological principles will be required to remain in control of this scenario, and what are its security implications? This kind of highly distributed environment has not only technological but social implications as we see technology increasingly being used to bolster established social structures, as well as create new ones.	GURU SESSIONS Royal Palm Salon 1/2 Automated System Administration/Infrastructure Paul Anderson, Univ. of Edinburgh; Steve Traugott, Infrastructures.Org Paul Anderson is a Principal Computing Officer with the School of Informatics at Edinburgh University in Scotland. He has been interested in large-scale system configuration issues for many years and is the primary author of the LCFG configuration system. He is currently involved in several research projects, attempting to bring together rigorous computer science techniques and practical configuration tools. Steve helped pioneer the term "Infrastructure Architecture" and has worked toward industry acceptance of this "SysAdmin++" career track for the last several years. He is a consulting Infrastructure Architect and publishes tools and techniques for automated system administration. His deployments have ranged from financial trading floors and NASA supercomputers to Web farms and growing startups.
3:30 p.m.–4:00 p.m.   Break in the Exhibit Hall (Golden Ballroom)
4:00 p.m.–5:30 p.m.
PLENARY SESSION (Town & Country Room) The Top Problems in the Internet and What Researchers and Sysadmins Can Do to Help kc claffy, CAIDA (Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis)