Know your community — Veronique Loquet
Tags: Coding, Interview, Cyber, Cybersecurity, Hacking

Originally published on March 29, 2017

Veronique Loquet is the owner of AL’X Communication, the Co-Founder for No Such Con, Security Vacation Club member and infosec enthusiast.

Curtesy of @vloquet

How many years have you been active in the cyber security field? What got you into it in the first place?

“I have been in the security field since 2002. I encountered security with an open source PKI. I was already immersed in the universe of free software working with people that were focused each day on changing the world, from Mandrake-Linux distro, MySQL, the PHP community and others.

I immediately joined the cause and started promoting free software, Net neutrality, open standards and to fight for interoperability, privacy, against DRM or software patents in Europe… There was room for battle, it’s still the case. There are so many challenges to face!”

What is your favorite 0-day vulnerability of all time?

“Without hesitating, the one I launched into the wild by mistake. I will never forget. I had to announce an 0D with its patch, but there has been a timing error and the patch was not ready. I saw the immediate responsiveness of the infosec community, 3 hours later the patch was ready to be applied. I could have been named at the Pwnie Awards for this epic fail.

This story gives thought on how to announce this type of vulnerabilities, and the responsibility for this kind of information provided by the communicant.”

Could you tell us how and why have you started No Such Con?

“We started it as a group of friends. We had an authentic, uncompromising approach to present exclusive content on hacking in Paris, with the latest research and attack skills from the international hacker community.

So, we tried to build a 0% bullshit conference through a non-profit organization. And were even hosted for fun in the French Communist Party’s headquarters, an astonishing building designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.”

How complex is it to organize a hackers conference?

“It requires a lot of time and dedication. As volunteers it’s not easy as it sounds if you have to run your own business at the same time. The programming committee played a central role in ensuring the best talks. Thanks to Endrazine and Matt Suiche, we had such cool PC members and remarkable engineers to help us build a great conference.”

Do you have any interesting stories from one of these conferences?

“Once, a researcher who came from Argentina brought me a paper with a cell number and told me “This guy was sitting next to me on the plane and he would like to come to the conference”. I looked at the name written on the paper, it was Gaspar Noé, the movie director. He stayed for days and nights with us during the conference.”

Which country’s security community has surprised you the most?

“Is it so important to make frontiers? The WW community is huge, but not as it should be. It’s an ecosystem and each one has a community mind. We are stronger together.”

Lastly, how does it feel to be a woman in a predominantly male security field?

“My daily life is not working on projects with male engineers. I cannot speak on behalf of female engineers. There is a big lack of women in this industry, but that will change. I see men rather happy to see talented women in the environment.”

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