After an amazing performance by the OWASP Band, the first day of plenary sessions is kicking off in a few hours.

Registration desk will open slightly after 8:30am and talks will start at 9:30am with an update from the OWASP Global Board.

This first day of presentations is going to be rather busy, ending with an interesting panel that will discuss PCI Council Secrity Standards and the role of application security.

In the evening we have the official conference cocktail at Kostis Palamas (48 Akadimias str.). A bus will leave from Divani Caravel at 19:30 to take you there and of course, our volunteers will be there to help you out.

We hope you’re enjoying training and the university challenge so far. Here’s what will be going on during the second day of OWASP AppSec Research 2012:

• Training starts at 9:30am. If you ‘re attending training you should be at the venue at 9am and please don’t forget your laptop! The following courses starts tomorrow:

Elite Web Defense – How to build robust and secure web applications in room B.

• The University Challenge starts at 10am. If you’re participating be there by 9:30.
• The Chapter Leader’s Workshop starts at 1:30pm in room Z.

The registration desk will open around 8:30. Some of our volunteers will be at Divani Caravel Hotel at from 8am to help you reach the venue.

The OWASP Band performance starts at 20:30. It will take place at Ya Cafe. If you get a taxi to take you there all you need to tell the driver is “Ya Cafe, right next to the Badminton Theatre”. Otherwise some of our volunteers will be at Divani around 8pm to help you reach the venue.

Some of our volunteers will be at Divani Caravel Hotel at from 8am to help you reach the venue. They’ll be wearing conference t-shirts and badges.

The OWASP AppSec Research 2012 Conference is kicking off tomorrow! Check below what’s going on:

• Training starts at 9:30 sharp. If you ‘re attending training you should be at the venue at 9am. The following courses start tomorrow:

Assessing and Exploiting Web Applications with Samurai-WTF in room C.

Hack Your Own Code: Advanced training for developers in room E.

Mobile Security: Securing Your Small, Smart Devices in room ST.

• The University Challenge starts at 10am. If you’re participating be there by 9:30.

The registration desk will open around 8:30.

Some of our volunteers will be at Divani Caravel Hotel at from 8am to help you reach the venue. They’ll be wearing conference t-shirts and badges.

As part of the OWASP AppSec Research 2012, on Wednesday, July 11 at 1:30PM-5:00PM, the Global Chapter Committee is organizing a chapter leader workshop for all the chapter leaders that attend the conference.

The workshop will take place in Room Z. Please check the venue map to locate Room Z.

Tip: If you arrive around 1pm you can enjoy lunch along the those attending training.

The Web Application Firewall Evaluation Criteria (WAFEC) is a key specification used by the industry to measure the quality of WAFs and to compare different offerings in this field. As the current document is already 6 years old, we have started the WAFEC v2 project to update the document to current technologies and security challenges as well as to fix issues we identified in WAFEC over the years.

To that end, we would like to take advantage of the unique gathering of application security experts in Athens for OWASP AppSec Research to present the initiative, invite volunteers to participate and get your feedback on what’s needed in the update. If you are already involved in WAFEC, this would be a great opportunity to meet face to face other contributors.

The workshop will be held on Thursday July 12th at 6pm allowing you all to not miss any conference presentation (albeit lose your break between the presentations and evening social event).

Time schedule for training sessions and room allocation has been announced. You can find more information here.

On Friday, July 13th, 2012 from 17:45 till 20:30 we have scheduled a visit to the Acropolis museum. We have also arranged for a professional guided tour of the museum by an experienced archaeologist.

You can find more information about it here.

The cost to visit the museum is 10 euros, it includes both entrance and the guided tour and will have to be paid in advance at the conference registration desk.

We put together a number of documents that will make your life easier while visiting Athens.

If you need help on how to get to the venue, here is a photographic guide to reaching the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications.

Also we have combined several useful information regarding, sightseeing, eating, getting around, or even reaching your hotel from the airport into a single Official OWASP AppSec Research 2012 Travel Guide. Regardless if you’ve been to Athens before or if this is you first time, this is a must read!

Also, here is a venue map to help you familiarize with the conference area:

In this panel

• Pravir Chandra, Security Architect, Bloomberg
• Josef Nedstam, Lead Developer, IKEA
• John Wilander, Software Developer, Svenska Handelbanken
• John Yeo, Director, Trustwave SpiderLabs EMEA
• Jeremy King, European Director, PCI Council

will be talking about

• PCI Security Standards Council: history, lifecycle and vision
• The role of Application Security in PCI Security Standards
• Recent breaches and their implications in the financial services space
• Tools and Guidance for achieving and maintaining compliance
• Real-life experience with the PCI Security Standards

at conference day 1 :Â 16:55-17:45

More info and bios:

Germany might have won Greece in Euro 2012 but we still have some treats for those of you that are waiting to register at the very last minute:

1) Sign up for training AND the conference talks and receive an 80 Euro discount off your total! This means you are effectively getting the early bird registration cost (even though you aren’t an “early bird”) Enter discount code: SAVE80EUROS at checkout.

2) Next 25 registrants will be entered into a drawing for a $100 Amazon Gift Card. Enter discount code: AMAZONDRAWING at checkout.