IISF June Chapter Meeting & Quiz Night

As always, the annual IISF June Chapter meeting & Quiz event was an absolute success, and a good time was had by all. Kudos to the hard work of the quiz masters behind the scenes, and to Paul Conaty, our host on the night, who certainly lived up to the very high standards set by Valerie.

Quiz Prizes

 

Many thanks to our event sponsors, - Check Point, Edgescan, Ekco, Foxit Software, Integrity360, SANS and Zsecurity, who contributed such wonderful prizes.

 

• Integrity360: 4 x bottles of green spot whiskey
• Check Point: 4 tickets (premium seated) to see Block Party on Friday 5 th of July at the 3Arena
• Edgescan: 4 x €50 One4All vouchers
• Ekco: 4 x €40 One4All vouchers
• Zsecurity: 4 x training course (https://zsecurity.org/courses/learn-ethical-hacking-from-scratch/, https://zsecurity.org/courses/learn-social-engineering-from-scratch/)
• SANS: 1 x training course (SEC275 foundations, https://www.sans.org/cyber-security-courses/foundations/)

Special mention must go to the IISF members who turned out in force, once again, to make this event one of the highlights of the year. The event started with high drama, as the Lost Lane location was aptly named, proving hard to find for some millenials and gen-z members who have never heard of Lilli's Bordello. There is no truth to the ugly rumour that one distinguished member (a Fellow, no less) described the place as "it used to be Lilli Bordello's"

Once the lane (it's NOT a lane) was found, and the dark staircase was ascended, the upstairs event space proved to be very comfy and very well appointed, in a dark, gothic, hipster vampire's library kinda way.

While the member representatives and guests arrived, and the various teams were forming, storming and norming, a lively side bar was taking place, regarding the exact colour of the walls; guesses ranged from fuschia, chartreuse, magenta, and shocking pink. The jury is still out on that one. (it's NOT purple).

It was a delight to see Ger Heffernan at the edgescan table, looking so fit and well, handing out the essential branded pens for the quiz. For me, that was the best prize of the night. (yes, I took two pens, one normal and one with a stylus).

The Presentation from Check Point on Cloud Management, was delivered by Gary Read, whose choice of leather jacket and high energy presentation style suited the ambience and the surroundings very well.

Despite a modest technical snafu popping up at just the wrong time, Gary brought us on a journey into SASE and ZTNA which educated, informed and entertained us all. Bonus marks for bringing the demo back to the audience at a lull in the proceedings, to prove the point. Of particular note was the zeal with which Gary threw his colleagues under the bus, and put them on the hook for buying pints for everyone. Well played.

  Plenty of SASE

 

The full presentation is now available to view via the IISF member's area (Meeting Downloads tab)  login to view 

The Food

A brief intermission took place in which vast quantities of "finger food" arrived, which were duly despatched, to be followed by a second round of delicious but high calorie treats. Waffles were well regarded, the chicken tenders really were, and the jalapeno cheese really did pop.

And now, to the Quiz.

There were 12 teams, ostensibly of 4 people in each team. Even the most casual observer will have noticed upwards of 80 people in the room. Let us draw a merciful veil over this apparent discrepancy and move on.

A quick scan of the team names made it clear how serious this event was, from the brutally honest (but incorrect) "Last Place Again", to the plaintive and essential, lonely truth of "Where's the free bar?" Some of the teams were clearly inspired by musical combos including "Martina & the Masterminds" (60's doo-wop), "Richards Kings" (70's Prog Rock), "Stevie's Wonder" (80's Soul), "Chips & Samosa" (90's Louis Walsh group), and then "Scanner McScanface" (techno revival).

Team "Lost in Space" were thankfully able to materialise on-planet, so they could receive their space-age aluminium water bottles (thank you Foxit Software).

Team "SASE & I know it" had the added benefit of their own jingle, as you couldn't help but sing the "sexy and i know it" song, when you heard their name. History does not record if the team are in fact, sexy. It wasn't that kind of event. And, what happen's in Lillie's, stays in Lillie's.

Next we had Team "Corrata A" ... which is exactly what it says on the tin.

Finally, we had two teams win spot prizes on the night, based on their name ... "Quiz tina aguilera" won a set of excellent Zsecurity training vouchers (thank you Zsecurity), while "Dave told us the answers" were the recipients of SAN voucher (thank you SANS). We are assured the Dave did not, in fact, tell anyone the answers.

Round 1 was aimed at sci-fi nerds & video game nerds. Which is nice. There was a round on identifying Flags Of The World in which we learned that Yoey is very sure what the flag of Indonesia looks like, and he doesn't care what ChatGPT says.

There was a sports round too, which featured such heated discussions at some tables that there was a very real danger of fisticuffs, such that Paddy Barnes himself might not have been able to restore control. Sonia O'Sullivan also got a mention, as did the Swimmer That Dare Not Speak Her Name.

The geography round was interesting too, especially the question on which European country has like a bajillion islands or something (I wasn't really listening at that point). There was a question about Turkey too, which prompted a brief side bar of "They ARE in Europe!"

The most contentious question on the night, was about the second largest city in Ireland. Residents of The People's Republic of Cork (Population 22400) have been up in arms, and apparently a hit-squad called "The Ghost of Michael Collins", sponsored by Graham Norton, and led by Peter O'Mahony have been seen heading to Belfast (Population 29330).

Winners on the night were the aptly named "Martina & The Masterminds" (imagine if they came in last, the shame). We are assured that the 4 bottles of Green Spot whiskey donated by Integrity360 were not opened on the DART that evening. Apparently.

Close behind, in a neck and neck race from the start, were "Richards Kings"; although it looked at times like there were 12 people on that team, we are assured that was a trick of the light, reflecting as it was, against the fuschia, magenta, pinky walls.

Their prize was premium seated tickets to Bloc Party in 3Arena, donated by Check Point.

In third place, we had "Stevie's Wonder" in what was a very close contest, with only 4 points seperating the top three teams. "Stevie's Wonder" earned themselves One4All vouchers donated by edgescan. Finally, in fourth place, "Where's the free bar?" also earned One4All vouchers, donated by Ekco.

The main thing is, a good time was had by all, and a donation was raised for the two charities nominated, ST. Vincent de Paul and Focus Ireland. Please consider adding to this donation if you have not already done so https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/IISF11


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Thanks once again to our sponsors, Check Point, and our members Edgescan, Ekco, Foxit Software, Integrity360, SANS and Zsecurity for their generous prizes.

See you all again next time!

If you are interested in finding out more about the IISF, or would like to attend one of our Chapter Meetings as an invited guest, please contact the
IISF Secretary:

By email:
secretary@iisf.ie

By post:

David Cahill

Information Security

GPO, 1-117
D01 F5P2

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