eCon Int. launches with inaugural forum on practical IT security monitoring

• Event aims to facilitate capacity building of operational IT teams in network security monitoring

eCon Int., a community initiative set on elevating cybersecurity benchmarks across Sri Lanka, will launch as a collaborative platform for the country’s growing community of cybersecurity experts by hosting its inaugural forum on 3 April at Mandarina Colombo. 

The forum – titled ‘Practical Monitoring: How to Improve Your Monitoring Capabilities’ – will serve as a fast-track foundation for systems engineers, security analysts, IT managers and consultants on applying cybersecurity functions and tools across local IT ecosystems. Operational IT teams can greatly benefit from the forum by understanding how to establish internal security operations, analysing and interpreting digital threats, and building required skills for strong network security monitoring.

With the overarching objective of building a formidable local community of cybersecurity experts in Sri Lanka, eCon aims to address the lack of public forums for engagement and collaboration for this growing target audience in the country. All eCon events plan to be vendor-neutral knowledge sharing sessions that will not only foster community collaboration, but also nurture a sense of responsibility across the local IT community towards safeguarding and controlling our cyber ecosystem. 

For the first time in Sri Lanka, cybersecurity experts will be offered a hands-on opportunity to test and deploy the latest tech advances against data breaches and online security risks. The event will also set a strong foundation in building a network of likeminded cybersecurity experts who aim at raising the bar high on local cybersecurity benchmarks in Sri Lanka. 

The event will consist of three sessions; session one will follow the opening guest keynote, and will focus on the Elastic Stack (the latest evolution of the ELK stack) – an integrated stack of open source products used to manage, monitor and analyse logs across organisations. The session will cover the basics of Elastic Stack, and show participants how to build a fully functional open source SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) with a winning combination of the Elastic Stack and other open source tools. 

The second session will emphasise on managing a company’s security health via continuous monitoring with OSSIM – open source security information and event management solutions. During this session, participants will be encouraged to self-evaluate and procure open source SIEM solutions before investing in big-budget vendor-based SIEM products. The third session will take form of a Catch the Flag (CTF) challenge for participating security experts, to assess individual skill levels in a live demo environment that will give a glimpse into how real world, real-time threats are identified and eliminated. The forum will conclude with a closing keynote followed by a networking session for the community. 

Considering the growing threat of cybercrime and the continued escalation of regulatory requirements across the globe, cybersecurity is increasingly gaining widespread attention from local IT teams looking to implement effective monitoring across businesses and enterprises in the country. From Log Retention and Monitoring, to SOC (Security Operations Centre) as a Service or Manage, Detect and Response (MDR) solutions, IT teams can utilise a myriad of progressive cybersecurity technologies to build a strong monitoring foundation and gain greater control of the security posture of their organisation. 

Through its inaugural forum and a few more similar events that are scheduled to follow soon after, eCon aims to narrow the growing gap between global cybersecurity regulations and local cybersecurity practices. 

Registrations are now open for the forum scheduled to be held on 3 April from 1:30 to 6 p.m. For more information, visit econ-int.org or email [email protected].