Simon Blanchet

Simon Blanchet is an Associate Director and Head of Application Security for a Private Bank. He is responsible, with the help of his team of application security specialists, for ensuring the security of internally developed applications as well as the secure integration of commercial off-the-shelf applications within the banking information systems. Simon's team provides internal security-consulting expertise to project management, business and development staff. He and his team are responsible for all aspects of application security including risk assessment, application security risk analysis, threat modeling, security testing and raising awareness about application security best practices.Simon Blanchet has been professionally working in the fields of Information Systems Security and Security Software Design & Development for the past 12 years. Simon has written his first lines of code in GW-BASIC on a TRS-80 at the age of 6 and spent most of his teenage years hooked on North American BBSes when he became fascinated with the so-called "underground hacking scene".He started his professional career as a Software Developer and Development Team Leader (cryptographic & security related software) in Montreal, Canada. Prior to moving into the Swiss Private Banking industry, Simon had the opportunity to contribute to the first version of the SDK implementing Stefan Brands' Digital Credential upon which is now built Microsoft U-Prove. Simon's career progressively evolved from being a seasoned security software developer to managing software security, combining a software developer background with a true passion for application security architecture, software security and software exploitation techniques. Simon likes to solve security related problems at the crossroads of software development and IT Security.Simon is fluent in english & french and he is proficient to to some extent in spanish (español) and haitian creole (kreyòl ayisyen).Simon holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Laval University in Canada. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and a Project Management Professional (PMP).