We’re pleased to announce that security expert Dan Kaminsky will be one of the keynote speakers at The Next HOPE, taking place in New York City July 16-18, 2010. As previously announced, Julian Assange of Wikileaks will also be keynoting.

Dan has a widely respected history in the computer security world, probably best known for discovering the 2008 DNS cache poisoning vulnerability, a flaw which could allow attackers to easily perform cache poisoning attacks on any nameserver. He also was key in the Sony BMG CD copy protection scandal, where Sony was found to be complicit in installing rootkits on consumer computers, making them vulnerable to all sorts of malware. Dan estimated that Sony’s rootkit had been installed on computers spanning more than 500,000 networks.

It’s particularly thrilling for us to have Dan in attendance (it’s also his first HOPE appearance) because he’s able to present this material in an entertaining and accessible manner, unlike so many security experts who have trouble reaching an audience outside their field of expertise. This, after all, is our goal with all of our conferences – to reach as many people with varying levels of interest and ability as possible.

Dan appeared on “Off The Hook” on January 20, 2010 and part of his interview on HAR FM can be heard on the December 29, 2009 edition of “Off The Wall.”

We know that Dan’s presentation will be amazing, but the sobering fact is that it’s going to be just one of over 100 talks that will be presented at The Next HOPE. Everything from the abuse of privacy to the revelation of security holes to consumer issues along with secret details about technology plus a huge amount of other stuff will be presented by our many speakers. As mentioned already, the final deadline for submissions is Monday, June 7 at sunset. Email speakers@hope.net with a concise summation along with a bio.

But even all of those talks only amount to one part of our conference, which will include an entire floor of activities, from lockpicking workshops, to a hackerspace village, to all sorts of hardware projects, films, music, etc. And of course Segway rides.

Admission to the conference is $85 online and $100 at the door. This is by far the cheapest hacker conference of its kind. And if we can keep the evil people from tearing down our hotel, it won’t be the last.

The Next HOPE is taking place at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City from July 16-18-2010. The hotel is right across the street from Penn Station, the country’s busiest train station, making travel incredibly easy.

For all of the latest info, keep checking www.hope.net and wiki.hope.net. You can also subscribe to thenexthope Twitter feed and join the Hope.Net Facebook page. And to participate in an ongoing discussion with all sorts of other people, join the Hope Forums at talk.hope.net.

* photo by Dave Bullock / eecue on flickr; used under a Creative Commons license.