Know your community– Tessy (Takayuki Terashima)

Takayuki Terashima, also known as Tessy (@tessy_jp), is one of AVTOKYO founder, Vice Executive Committee Chairman at SecCon and CTF team leader!

Questions

Q: How many years have you been involved in the security field, what was your motivation to get into it the first place?

A: About 16 years. I started to work for the security industry in 2001. Before that, I was a designer of the automobile parts which is a completely different job. When I was a student, I wanted to get a job related to the Internet, and it brought me to become a security engineer.

Q: What is your field of expertise?

A: Forensic. I analyze security incidents, and also research any related technologies.

Q: Is there some security research field that you always wanted to learn but never had a chance?

A: Lately, I’m thinking about getting into hardware security. I used to play with the electronic stuff a lot as a hobby.

Q: How has the security community changed in Japan in the past 5 years?

A: The main change in the Japanese community is the fact that community has been growing (youth and adults). I think because a lot of well-known security researchers came to Japan to participate in security conferences, like CODE BLUE and SECCON.

Q: Are there special programs for students that want to get into the security research field?

A: There are programs to support people who are looking to learn cyber-security. For example Security Camp organized by IPA – It’s for the students 22 years old and under. There are also some universities which started the curriculum’s related to security.

Q: Why did you decide to get involved in the security community (both the international and local community)?

A: I was looking for the security information such as exploits, attacking methods, vulnerabilities etc, and basically all the information came from oversea.

Then one day, I was getting curious to see, in person, the researcher who did the research which I was focused on, so I decided to attend the conference oversea.

And after I started to play CTF, I was getting to know more CTF players in the world.

Q: What is you favorite security conference?

A: DEFCON in US, CCC in Germany. These have a good freedom, and diversity, and I like those points.

Q: What kind lectures you like to attend? listen to?

A: I like new technology and research on technology which is not very noticeable such as DOOM.

Q: What do you love most in conferences? (conference events – CTF / hacking village / Hack the badge, drinking parties etc)

A: Of course it is the time to drink with other participants and players. Especially after the hard battle of CTF. It is also a good way to get to know each other after the game.

Q: In which country have you been surprised by the size / quality of the security community?

A: In my limited experience, South Korea and Taiwan. I think there are many things we should learn from them especially how to raise the youth for the security.

You are one of the AVTOKYO founders and Vice Executive Committee Chairman at SECCON why did you decide to organize AVTOKYO in the first place?

A: AVTOKYO was based on the drinking party among Japanese participants/friends after Black Hat Japan.

In 2007, organizer and couple of speakers from Black Hat Japan (Jeff Moss, Halver Flake etc.), joined our Black Hat Japan after-party as guests. At the after-party, some of our Japanese participants gave some technical and crazy presentations, the guests from Black Hat Japan asked questions and everyone began to talk, not in English/Japanese but CODE!!!.

We realized we, engineers, could communicate with the code beyond our verbal language, and that how AVTOKYO was born.

Q: Do you remember the first conference? ( How many people attended? / How many talks / topic etc)

A: About 100 participants at first time. We had about five talk sessions at the Byakuya Shobou Hall, and changed the place for the party with the lightening talks.

Q: Did you ever thought that AVTOKYO will be the conference it is today?

A: Not really. I did not think much about the future of AVTOKYO. We try new stuff every year with the various stuff. We keep “No corporate sponsor policy” for sure.

Q: How difficult is it to organize a hackers conference? – and do you have any funny stories?

A: I never thought it is difficult because we do only what we like.

Funny stories? Since AVTOKYO slogan is ‘no drink, no hack’, we have seen a lot of drunk speakers on stage and off stage. Some of them screamed on stage, some of them jumped on on folded steel chairs and stairs. We have been fortunate no serious injuries or accidents happened yet.

Q: How do you choose lecture topics?
A: We basically try to pick some lectures that are technically interesting, and challenging. Also we keep it on our mind to find new speakers, especially from Japan.

Q: Why did you decide to choose a nightclub for the AVTOKYO venue?

A: I wanted to make the speakers and attendees closer, make the participants from oversea and domestic closer. I think it is boring keep sitting and listening the talks.

Q: You are the author of “No drink, No hack”, Do you remember when is the first time you said it?

A: I don’t remember because it is too natural for me. It is from the pre-AVTOKYO drinking party before 2008, and it is started drink more and talk more.

Q: What does this term mean for you?

A: Let’s talk with a drink, do not think too seriously.

Q: Does the hacker community know how to drink?

A: I hope so. :）

You are also the CTF T-dori team leader. Do you still participate in CTF challenges?

A: Team T-dori (read as “chidori”) is my first CTF team. By the way, Team T-dori was made with the friends who drink together regularly and participated the security meetups (One of the reasons name T-dori came after Japanese word “Chidori-ashi” describing about the drunken man stagger along street). Anyway, T-dori team never made it to DEF CON CTF Final.

But, we established a new team from the AVTOKYO CTF project and named the team ‘sutegoma2’. Sutegoma2 were qualified three times of DEF CON CTF Finals totally. Eventually, some members from sutegoma2 and some from other Japanese teams started to play together and merged into the team named “binja”.

In recent years, I’ve been busy to work on SECCON CTF. But I personally participated CTF once in a while.

Q: Which CTF challenge you remember the most?
A: It is an old type and not the current trendy type of quiz, but I remember I had a big impression from “mores challenge” at the first CTF I participated.

Q: What kind of set skills do I need to be a CTF player?
I think the reverse engineering skills, and programming skill is important.

Q: What projects are you currently prompting?
A: Now I am working for SECCON renewal ,10th AVTOKYO and 5th CODE BLUE.

Q: What’s the single piece of advice you would give to someone seeking out a career in the security field?
A: I always said, ‘Learn the basics; not to skip basics and jump into the hacking technology’. Security and Hacking is pretty wide range.

Q: What are your hobbies?
A: Exercise, Road bike, Trail running, Mountain-Climbing

It was a pleasure, tessy, to talk to you

You’re welcome.