FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For More Information contact:
Monica Ortiz
USENIX PR Liaison
415-990-5513

TIMELY TOPICS AND SECURITY ISSUES TOP SYSADMIN CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Berkeley, CA, October 25, 2001 -- The USENIX Association and The System Administrators Guild (SAGE) today announced the addition of speaker William LeFebvre of CNN to their LISA, the 15th System Administration Conference in San Diego, California in December. "CNN.com: Facing a World in Crisis" will examine the need for vigilance in system administration and discuss the trials CNN system administrators faced when their internet site failed during the news deluge of the September 11th tragedy.

"Complacency during easy times can turn the unexpected event into a calamity," LeFebvre said. "Our site was brought back up by talented administrators whose work is vital to the health of the web site."

The LISA 2001 conference has always been a popular learning and networking venue for system administrators internationally. Its program addresses technical problems and diverse levels of experience combined with discussion on political, legal, and business aspects of computing. It regularly attracts a stellar list of industry luminaries such as Keynote Speaker and Science Fiction Writer Greg Bear, Security gurus Avi Rubin and Marcus Ranum, Sendmail creator Eric Allman, Perl expert Tom Christiansen, and Evi Nemeth, co-author of the sysadmin's bible "The UNIX System Administration Handbook."

The greater opportunities in this conference lie in hearing new ideas from the industry's international experts starting with Program Chair Mark Burgess, Oslo University College; Frode Sandness, Oslo University College; and US based presenters Tom Perrine, Rob Apthorpe, and Jim Waldo.

"This is where system administrators find like minds and hear groundbreaking research as well as practical solutions for what they face everyday in their environments," said LISA 2001 Program Chair Mark Burgess. "Every major operating system is always represented at LISA because we know that practitioners are expected to have as diverse a range of skills as they can manage. LISA has strong connections with the Open Source and Free Software communities as well as established Windows and UNIX groups. We bring together a broad international community of researchers, practitioners and vendors and provide them with a unique, intelligent, and forward thinking program."

Interest in security and networking has intensified within the popular conference, which began adding security-centric topics to the menu in 1999 as systems became more complex and required greater levels of protection against intruders. Today, computer and system security topics are an integral part of LISA's tutorial and technical conference slate.

"In prior years, security was perceived as an optional component of system administration," said Phillip Cox of SystemExperts and a LISA 2001 instructor and speaker. "In today's environment, one of the 'check boxes' for a properly administered system is how well it is secured. No one considers an unsecured system to be a properly administered system."

LISA 2001 offers over 50 professional-level tutorials and three days of refereed papers and invited speakers within its technical program. It also provides an array of special events for project presentation, networking and socializing including the Advanced Topics Workshop, Work-In-Progress Reports, and Birds-of-a-Feather sessions. On a more commercial front, LISA features a large vendor exhibition showcasing the companies, products, and services leading today's IT market.

Program and registration details for LISA 2001 are available online at www.usenix.org/events/lisa2001. Press and Media representatives are eligible for complimentary passes. Email your name, publication, title, street address, email, phone/fax, and URL to Monica Ortiz at monica@usenix.org.