June General Meeting

SCADA Security - What's Broken and How To Fix It

Speaker: Andrew Ginter, VP Industrial Security, Waterfall Security Solutions

How can we patch everything, when changed code risks malfunction of our physical, industrial processes? How many false alarms does our intrusion system generate? If "the perimeter is dead," and all software is vulnerable, what hope is there?

Asking the wrong questions has led entire industries to deploy inadequate defenses. We need better questions. Should we let any stranger turn our dials and throw switches? When we detect compromise, can we restore equipment and human lives "from backups?"

Preventing compromise is critical. The only way to compromise a control system is to breach a perimeter. Important systems always have a perimeter.

Andrew will be speaking to these and related topics from his new book.

Andrew Ginter is the VP Industrial Security at Waterfall Security Solutions, an Adjunct Professor at Michigan Technological University, and an author and speaker on SCADA Security topics. He has led teams developing SCADA, IT/OT middleware, and SCADA security products, and was awarded patents for middleware and SCADA security technologies. He holds Applied Mathematics and Computer Science degrees from the University of Calgary, and is located in Calgary, Alberta.

"Sounds familiar. Déjà vu all over again," you ask?

The original presentation attempt by Andrew Ginter at our September 2016 general meeting generated so much discussion that Andrew was only able to complete the first third of his presentation.

This time we have undertaken, if required, to gavel the room through his complete presentation.

Prior to this meeting, our members are encouraged to finish reading or brush up on Andrew's book which he kindly provided to all CUUGers.

Come and join us for a lively evening of exploration.

Central Library

5:30 PM, Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Snacks at 17:30. CUUG Annual General Meeting begins at 18:00. Presentation begins immediately after AGM.

Attendance is free for CUUG members, or $10 (cash only) at the door for non-CUUG members.

Annual General Meeting and Elections

The Calgary UNIX Users' Group is holding its Annual General Meeting and election of the 2017/2018 Board of Directors. Nominees so far include the following:

• John Clarke
• Alan Dewar
• Winson Duong
• Neil Glenn
• Greg King

Central Library

5:30 PM, Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Membership Renewals Due

It is annual renewal time for CUUG memberships. Membership fees remain at $50.00 (no GST), and cheques can be made payable to Calgary UNIX Users' Group. Our mailing address is as follows:

Calgary Unix Users' Group
Box 878, Station M
Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2P 2J6

Invoices have been sent by email. If you have not received yours, please contact office at CUUG.

May General Meeting

How to over-engineer a coffee machine and other gadgets

Speaker: Chuck Rohs, Endpoint security developer, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Chuck likes to tinker and will present a variety of projects based on various microcontroller architectures including AVR, ARM, and ESP8266.

The discussion will be free ranging and cover various things including inspiration for projects, implementation details, tools used, successes and failures. Projects include simple things like digital dice, to Coffee machine and solder reflow oven pid controllers and the obligatory Raspberry Pi Media Centres, and arcade machine emulators.

Chuck is an endpoint security developer at Cisco Systems, Inc. Chuck has a background in embedded software development and security, and was a founder of Au-Zone Technologies Inc.

Central Library

5:30 PM, Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Attendance is free for CUUG members, or $10 (cash only) at the door for non-CUUG members.

April General Meeting

YYCIX: Calgary Internet Exchange

Speaker: Theo de Raadt, Founder, OpenBSD

Five years ago, Calgary was the most populous city in the G8/G20 without an internet exchange. As a result, so-called boomerang routes were very common. Traffic sent from one local network to another local network would loop through Vancouver, Seattle, Toronto, Chicago, or even further afield.

An internet exchange is really just an "open switch" where networks can interconnect. Some other internet-improving services can also be established at this point to make our Alberta networking experience better.

YYCIX was built by a collection of volunteers who made arrangements with local partners to bring this function to the City. Theo de Raadt was one of those volunteers, and he will present an update on how things have progressed and where they may be headed next.

Theo de Raadt is widely recognized as a world class security expert. In October 1995, Theo founded the OpenBSD project. OpenBSD is the most secure of the publicly available operating systems.

In 1999, Theo created OpenSSH with other members of OpenBSD. It is now incorporated into all Unix systems plus hundreds of other network enabled products. It has become the most "vendor re-used" piece of open source software, with more than 95% of the SSH market.

Theo was awarded the Free Software Foundation's 2004 Award for the Advancement of Free Software, for recognition as founder and project leader of the OpenBSD and OpenSSH projects. His work has also led to significant contributions to other BSD distributions and GNU/Linux. Of particular note is Theo's work on OpenSSH, his leadership of OpenBSD, his commitment to Free Software and his advancement of network security.

Theo is also well known for his advocacy of free software drivers. He has long been critical of developers of Linux and other free platforms for their tolerance of non-free drivers and acceptance of non-disclosure agreements.

Central Library

5:30 PM, Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Guests are welcome but must RSVP to office at CUUG no less than 48 hours prior to the meeting or pay $10 at the door.

March General Meeting

ERPNext: Open Source Enterprise Resource Planning for Small Business

John Clarke, ERPNext Champion, Consultant at Apropos Computing

Up to now only Big Business has used Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. In basic terms ERP aims to standardize and automate processes to streamline how a business operates: ERP lets departments and workers connect and share data and processes, so analysts and executives can quickly spot and resolve business performance problems.

The ERP tools a firm selects depends on what process they aim to improve and whether they sell products or services: Businesses that sell products may have manufacturing, supply chain or distribution functions that the ERP system must address. For organizations that sell services, an ERP must support project management budgets, task and resource scheduling, and billing.

First SAP in 1973 then later Oracle, Microsoft and others provided Tier 1 ERP solutions at a huge cost to licence and implement. But now powerful open source ERPs target Small Business, who struggle with the same problems as Big Business: To master systems vital for them to organize and respond, so they can compete and grow.

With a nascent Foundation (think: Apache, Mozilla, Eclipse) and a GPL3 licence, ERPNext may disrupt its open source ERP competition.

John will share some of ERPNext's metaprogramming features that let everyday users self-implement and customize their ERP to suit.

John has degrees in Computer Science (Calgary) and Survey Science (Toronto), and loves to bike, hike and travel. From his eight-year stint responsible for Quality Assurance on a Java application project (for several years a 40+ developer team), John knows first hand how and why Test Driven Design, Agile development, and Continuous Integration with Automated Build and Test works.

Central Library

5:30 PM, Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Guests are welcome but must RSVP to office at CUUG no less than 48 hours prior to the meeting or pay $10 at the door.

February General Meeting

Raspberry Pi Show and Tell

Coordinator: Matt Mulrooney

What have people been doing lately with the Raspberry Pi? At our February meeting, Matt Mulrooney will lead a discussion of all things Pi-related, and those who have used or are using the Raspberry Pi will have a chance to present their experiences. Whether you have a major project or just a tiny experiment (or if you're just interested in listening or asking questions), we welcome your attendance!

Central Library

5:30 PM, Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Guests are welcome but must RSVP to office at CUUG no less than 48 hours prior to the meeting or pay $10 at the door.

January General Meeting

Configuration Management 101

Speaker: Pat Valentine, Sr. Systems Administrator, Cloud Automation and Engineering, IHS

Pat will speak about "Configuration Management 101" covering the evolution of configuration management from early efforts to the present day. Pat spoke about Configuration Management at our June meeting. He got the sense that most of the audience didn't understand the fundamentals, what, why and methodology trade-offs. "101" will back fill this information.

Having just completed an initial implementation at IHSMarkit, he will speak from his direct experiences. Having reviewed the current tools in the marketplace, Pat will provide a comparison of the tools and will answer your questions after the presentation.

Pat has been providing UNIX and Linux system administration for over 15 years. Working as a junior admin at a local ISP, to the University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine to IHS Inc. has provided experience with Solaris (6-11), TRU-64, HP-UX, RHEL (2-7), CentOS, OpenBSD, Ubuntu and AWS. His other hats include Data Centre Administrator, Change Management Leader, Network Admin, Storage Admin and all around handy guy.

Pat is passionate about Configuration Management, Usable Secure Servers, Black holes and Lego.

Central Library

5:30 PM, Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Guests are welcome but must RSVP to office at CUUG no less than 48 hours prior to the meeting or pay $10 at the door.

December Holiday Social

CUUG December Holiday Season Social Evening

It's December, and in keeping with our tradition of recent years, CUUG members and their invited guests will get together for a social evening at the Regency Palace restaurant on Tuesday, December 13, 2016. We'll have a private room and have food from the buffet. Attendees pay for their own drinks.

If you are a CUUG member and would like to join us, please e-mail office at cuug.ab.ca so that we can get a good count of how many people to expect. If you would like to bring a guest, please let us know your guest's name as well.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Regency Palace Restaurant

5:45 PM, Tuesday, December 13, 2016

This event is for CUUG members and invited guests.

November General Meeting

O-NET: How Olds, Alberta, Acquired Town-Wide Fibre Optic Internet

Speakers: Robin Harder, Chief Technologist, O-NET; and Nathan Kusiek, Director of Business Development, O-NET

Have you ever been frustrated with your telecommunications company over slow Internet speeds, small data caps, long on-hold times, or complex and ever-increasing prices? Have you thought that there has to be a better way with today's technology? O-NET is a direct result of people thinking like you.

O-NET is a technology company founded in Olds, Alberta that specializes in Internet, telephony and television. Over the past four years O-NET has installed a town-wide fibre optic network, developed unique Internet, voice, PBX, and television services, and connected thousands of subscribers. They were the second ISP in North America to offer gigabit Internet, losing the race to Google Fiber. O-NET is disrupting the telecommunications industry in Alberta, showing that small nimble organizations and communities can develop and compete with the incumbents.

Join two of O-NET's key personnel for a presentation and open dialogue about what it takes to start a telco. They will discuss open access networks, bandwidth as a utility, business operating models that promote competition, television channel procurement, and how community engagement and sustainability tie into O-NET's success.

Nathan Kusiek is the Director of Business Development for O-NET. From day to day his responsibilities at O-NET vary. He is responsible for marketing, communications, product development and pricing at O-NET. He spends his days analyzing data and evaluating business cases for profitability versus sustainability and value.

Robin Harder is the Chief Technologist for O-NET. He has nearly 20 years of experience in information technology management, consulting and direction at companies in Calgary and Central Alberta. At O-NET, he is responsible for everything that plugs in and gets buried. This includes customer premise equipment, core routers and switches to fibre connectors to network access points.

W.R. Castell Central Library

5:30 PM, Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Non CUUG members are welcome but must RSVP to office at CUUG no less than 48 hours prior to the meeting or pay $10 at the door.

October General Meeting

Configuration Management 101

Speaker: Pat Valentine, Sr. Systems Administrator, Cloud Automation and Engineering, IHS

Pat's presentation had to be postponed due to his being called out of town at the last minute. Instead, we had a wide-ranging interactive discussion of all things UNIX, and many things beyond. Pat's presentation was rescheduled for January, 2017.

Pat will speak about "Configuration Management 101" covering the evolution of configuration management from early efforts to the present day. Pat spoke about Configuration Management at our June meeting. He got the sense that most of the audience didn't understand the fundamentals, what, why and methodology trade-offs. "101" will back fill this information.

Having just completed an initial implementation at IHSMarkit, he will speak from his direct experiences. Having reviewed the current tools in the marketplace, Pat will provide a comparison of the tools and will answer your questions after the presentation.

Pat has been providing UNIX and Linux system administration for over 15 years. Working as a junior admin at a local ISP, to the University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine to IHS Inc. has provided experience with Solaris (6-11), TRU-64, HP-UX, RHEL (2-7), CentOS, OpenBSD, Ubuntu and AWS. His other hats include Data Centre Administrator, Change Management Leader, Network Admin, Storage Admin and all around handy guy.

Pat is passionate about Configuration Management, Usable Secure Servers, Black holes and Lego.

W.R. Castell Central Library

5:30 PM, Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Non CUUG members are welcome but must RSVP to office at CUUG no less than 48 hours prior to the meeting or pay $10 at the door.

September General Meeting

SCADA Security - What's Broken and How To Fix It

Speaker: Andrew Ginter, VP Industrial Security, Waterfall Security Solutions

How can we patch everything, when changed code risks malfunction of our physical, industrial processes? How many false alarms does our intrusion system generate? If "the perimeter is dead," and all software is vulnerable, what hope is there?

Asking the wrong questions has led entire industries to deploy inadequate defenses. We need better questions. Should we let any stranger turn our dials and throw switches? When we detect compromise, can we restore equipment and human lives "from backups?"

Preventing compromise is critical. The only way to compromise a control system is to breach a perimeter. Important systems always have a perimeter.

Andrew will be speaking to these and related topics from his new book.

Andrew Ginter is the VP Industrial Security at Waterfall Security Solutions, an Associate Professor at Michigan Technological University, and an author and speaker on SCADA Security topics. He has led teams developing SCADA, IT/OT middleware, and SCADA security products, and was awarded patents for middleware and SCADA security technologies. He holds Applied Mathematics and Computer Science degrees from the University of Calgary, and is located in Calgary, Alberta.

W.R. Castell Central Library

5:30 PM, Tuesday, September 20, 2016

N.B. This is the third Tuesday of the month.

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Non CUUG members are welcome but must RSVP to office at CUUG no less than 48 hours prior to the meeting or pay $10 at the door.

2016 Board of Directors

At the June 2016 Annual General Meeting, the following people were elected to the Board of Directors for 2016/2017:

• Christopher Aziz (President)
• Dick Miller (Secretary-Treasurer)
• John Clarke
• Alan Dewar
• Greg King