Call for Participants: The Financial Cryptography 1997 Workshopfor Senior Managers and IS Professionals

[Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>]

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS
The Financial Cryptography 1997 (FC97)
Workshop for Senior Managers and IS Professionals
February 17-21, 1997
The InterIsland Hotel
Anguilla, BWI
<http://www.offshore.com.ai./fc97/>

Workshop Update: January 29, 1997

FC97 is sponsored by:

The Journal for Internet Banking and Commerce
<http://www.arraydev.com/commerce/JIBC/>
Offshore Information Services <http://www.offshore.com.ai/>
e$ <http://www.vmeng.com/rah/>
C2NET <http://www.c2.net/>
See Your Name Here! <mailto: rackliffe@tcm.org>

FC97 Workshop for Senior Managers and IS Professionals
February 17-21, 1997

FC97 Conference and Exhibition,
February 24-28, 1997

The Inter-Island Hotel
Anguilla, BWI

Workshop and Conference Reservations: <http://www.offshore.com.ai./fc97/>



The world's first intensive financial cryptography workshop for senior
managers and IS professionals will be held Monday through Friday, February
17-21 1997, from 9:00am to 6:00pm, at the Inter-Island Hotel on the
Carribbean island of Anguilla.

This workshop will be the prelude to the world's first peer-reviewed
financial cryptography conference and commercial exhibition, Financial
Cryptography 1997 (FC97), which will be held the following week, February
24-28, 1997.


The goals of the combined workshop, conference and exhibition are:

-- to give senior managers and IS professionals a solid understanding of
the fundamentals of strong cryptgraphy as applied to financial
operations on public networks,

-- to provide a peer-reviewed forum for important research in financial
cryptography and the effects it will have on society, and,

-- to showcase the newest products in financial cryptography.

Workshop and Conference participants are encouraged to bring their
families, though Workshop participants should expect to be busy the first
week. :-).


The Workshop

Ian Goldberg, the Workshop chair, has picked an outstanding team of
instructors in financial cryptography and internet financial system
security to teach the courses in this workshop. The Workshop will consist
of 40 hours of intensive instruction and lab time over 5 days. Each student
will have their own internet workstation, and the lab will be open 24
hours.  The SSL internet commerce server used in the workshop will be
Stronghold, developed by C2NET, of Berkeley, California. For information on
Stronghold, please see <http://www.c2.net/>. Thanks to C2NET for their
gracious donation of this outstanding software to the FC97 Workshop.


Who Should Attend

The Workshop is intended for senior IS managers and technical professionals
who want to get completely up to speed on the design, development, and
implementation of financial cryptography systems, the core technology of
internet commerce. After the workshop, senior managers will have a hands-on
understanding the strengths and liabilities of currently available
financial cryptography and internet transaction security software and
hardware, and thus be able to make better asset allocation decisions in
this area of explosive technology growth. Senior technical professionals
with strong IS experience will be able to implement those technologies and
to pass on what they've learned to their clients and colleagues when they
return home.

The Workshop will be held in a casual but intensive atmosphere at the very
cutting edge of financial technology on the internet. Someone has likened
the experience to a financial cryptography bootcamp.  At the end, Workshop
attendees will be utterly conversant in cryptography as it applies to
finance, and will be quite prepared for the technical papers in the FC97
conference the following week. Workshop participants will not only know
what everyone else is doing now in internet commerce, but, more important,
because they understand the implications of strong financial cryptography
on ubiquitous public networks, they will be able to know what to do *next*.


The Workshop Leader

Ian Goldberg is a Ph.D. student in security and cryptography at the
University of California, Berkeley. Just last night, he cracked RSA Data
Security Inc.'s 40-bit challenge cipher in just under 3.5 hours. In late
1995, he discovered what became a much-publicized flaw in Netscape's
implementation of SSL. He is a recognized expert in electronic payment
systems, and in DigiCash's ecash digital bearer certificate protocol in
particular. He has produced several ecash clients for Unix and Windows, as
well as an ecash module for the Stronghold web server, which has extended
the existing ecash system for better security, privacy, and ease-of-use.

The Principal Instructors

Gary Howland worked on digital cash systems for DigiCash, and then moved to
Systemics, where he developed the SOX protocol, a flexible payments system
currently in use in a bond trading environment, soon to be available to the
public. He also developed the Cryptix and PGP libraries in Perl, and
assisted on the Cryptix and PGP library implementations in Java.

Adam Shostack is a security consultant based in the Boston area. He has
extensive background in designing, implementing and testing secure systems
for clients in the medical, computer, and financial industries. His recent
public work includes 'Apparent Weaknesses in the Security Dynamics Client
Server Protocol,' 'Source Code Review Guidelines,' and comparisons of
freely available cryptographic libraries. His clients include Fidelity
Investments and the Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston.


Additional Instructors

The Workshop will have student-to-instructor ratio of 5 to 1, not including
the Workshop leader. The Workshop will have an initial enrollment of 10
students, and an additional instructor will be added for each 5 students up
to a 25 student maximum enrollment.


Workshop Topics

The following is the complete list of topics that the workshop will cover:


      Security on the Internet
            Internet Protocols: IP, TCP, UDP
            Higher-level Protocols: Telnet, FTP, HTTP, SSL
            Solid Foundations for Cryptographic Systems
            A History of Internet Attacks
            Building Internet Firewalls
            Building a Bastion Host
            Turning your Bastion Host into a Web Server
            Non-internet Internet Security
      Cryptography
            The Need for Cryptography
            History of Cryptography
            Classical Methods
            Modern Methods
            Private and Public Key Cryptography
            Authentication vs. Security
            Certification and Public Key Infrastructures
            Cryptographic Protocols
            Engineering a Cryptographically Secure System
            Why Cryptography is Harder than it Looks
            Security Through Obscurity and How to Recognize Snake Oil
      Internet Payment Systems
            Payment models: coin-based, cheque-based, account-based
            Security Issues
            Privacy and Anonymity Issues
            Smartcards vs. Software
            Existing Payment Schemes
                  Credit Cards
                  First Virtual
                  CyberCash
                  DigiCash
            Forthcoming Payment Schemes
                  SET
                  Mondex
                  Millicent
                  micropayments
      Setting Up an ecash-Enabled Web Server
            Setting up the Web Server
            Signing up for ecash
            Installing the ecash Module
            Setting Prices
            Logging
            Advanced Methods
                  ecashiers
                  moneychangers


The workshop has been covered by Wired Magazine, and FC97 was the featured
conference in the January 1997 "Deductible Junkets" section. So, if you
have already decided to come to the FC97 Workshop and Conference, please
register and make your plane and hotel reservations as soon as possible.
Workshop space is extremely limited.

The price of the workshop is $5,000 U.S. You can pay for your FC97 workshop
ticket with Visa or MasterCard, with ecash, or with any of a number of
other internet commerce payment protocols, at the
regstriation site: <http://www.offshore.com.ai/fc97/>.

The workshop price includes meals (but not lodging) at the InterIsland
Hotel and lab space, plus the delivery and installation of hardware,
network access, internet commerce software, all to a location like
Anguilla. And, of course, 40 hours of instruction and structured lab
activity.  We have priced the workshop to be competitive with other
comprehensive business and professional technology workshops of similar
total session length.

In addition, the first 10 FC97 workshop participants will receive a 50%
reduction in their FC97 Conference and Exhibition fee, for a savings of
$500 off the $1,000 conference admission.

You can register, and pay for, your workshop ticket at:

<http://www.offshore.com.ai/fc97/>



Air Transportation and Hotels

Air travel to Anguilla is typically done through San Juan, St. Thomas or
St. Maarten/Martin. There are several non-stop flights a day from various
US and European locations. Connection through to Anguilla can be made
through American Eagle, or through LIAT, or in the case of St. Maarten,
with a short ferry ride to Anguilla. See your travel agent for details.

Anguilla's runway is 3600 feet, with a displaced threshold of 600 feet,
and can accomodate business jets. Obviously, you should talk to your
aviation staff for details about your own aircraft's capabilities in this
regard.

Anguilla import duties are not imposed on hardware or software which
will leave the island again, so, as long as you take it with you when
you leave, you won't pay import duties.

PLEASE NOTE: Your FC97 Workshop fee only covers *meals* at the InterIsland
Hotel. The InterIsland is actually a small guesthouse attached to a large
conference facility, and so rooms there are in short supply. Fortunately,
there are lots of small hotels and guesthouses nearby. For more information
on these hotels, please see <http://www.offshore.com.ai/fc97/> for more
information.

Other hotels on Anguilla range from spartan to luxurious, all within easy
walking or driving distance of the Workshop at the InterIsland. More
information about Anguillan hotels can be obtained from your travel agent,
or at <http://www.offshore.com.ai/fc97/>.


Registration and Information for Other FC97 Events

To register and pay for your ticket to the FC97 conference itself, see:
<http://www.offshore.com.ai/fc97/>

For information the selection of papers for the FC97 conference see:
<http://www.cwi.nl/conferences/FC97>

If you're interested in Exhibition space, please contact Julie Rackliffe:
<mailto:rackliffe@tcm.org>

If you're interested in sponsoring FC97, also contact Julie Rackliffe:
<mailto:rackliffe@tcm.org>


Financial Cryptography '97 is held in cooperation with the International
Association for Cryptologic Research. The conference proceedings will be
published on the web by the Journal for Internet Banking and Commerce.
<http://www.arraydev.com/commerce/JIBC/>.



The FC97 Organizing Committee:

Vince Cate and Bob Hettinga, General Chairs
Ray Hirschfeld, Conference Chair
Ian Goldberg, Workshop Chair
Julie Rackliffe, Conference, Exhibit, and Sponsorship Manager

And our sponsors...

The Journal for Internet Banking and Commerce
<http://www.arraydev.com/commerce/JIBC/>
Offshore Information Services <http://www.offshore.com.ai/>
e$ <http://www.vmeng.com/rah/>
C2NET <http://www.c2.net/>
See Your Name Here <mailto: rackliffe@tcm.org>

-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"The cost of anything is the foregone alternative" -- Walter Johnson
The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/rah/
FC97: Anguilla, anyone? http://www.ai/fc97/
"If *you* don't go to FC97, *I* don't go to FC97"