Black Hat 2017: Inside Look

The History of Black Hat

“From its inception in 1997, Black Hat has grown from a single annual conference in Las Vegas to a global conference series with annual events in Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Las Vegas and Washington DC. It has also become a premiere venue for elite security researchers and the best security trainers to find their audience.”While the event attracts the most prestigious names in cyber security, pranks are common. One report from Business Insider states, “In the past, attendees have hacked Las Vegas hotel TV billing systems and Wi-Fi networks to play tricks on other attendees. Sometimes there's even a ‘Wall of Sheep’ that displays the names and partial passwords that hackers have obtained from unsecured computers. It's meant to shame people who don't connect to the Internet using secure methods.” It’s all in good fun, but is a reminder that security never sleeps, especially in Las Vegas.The environment is strictly vendor-neutral and focused on the sharing of knowledge and practical skills. In addition to the topical presentations featured, the high intensity, multi-day trainings are a key feature of each year’s event. Training sessions are given by security experts from around the world.Being located in Las Vegas, this conference has also earned a reputation of having quite the party scene. On the Black Hat website, you will event find a tab under the ‘Special Events’ labeled ‘Parties & Networking,’ which features the best happenings of the week.

An Inside Look at Black Hat USA 2017

This year’s Black Hat USA will take place July 22-27 at the Mandalay bay Convention Center and marks the 20^th anniversary of the US conference.Black Hat USA 2017 kicks off with four days of technical Trainings (July 22-25) followed by the two-day main conference (July 26-27) featuring Briefings, Arsenal, and a Business Hall boasting an attendance of over 270 security companies and more than 15,000 InfoSec professionals.The Black Hat website describes the event as “the world’s leading information security event, providing attendees with the very latest in research, development and trends.” Featuring sustaining partners like Cylance, HP, RSA, and Tenable, the 2017 conference will certainly not disappoint.It’s predicted that WannaCry and NotPetya will be critical topics of discussion this year, along with Vault7 and IoT security. Those who cannot attend but would like to stay updated on happenings from the conference can follow the official Black Hat Twitter.

Attendees: Briefings You May Be Interested In

1. Stepping Up Our Game: Re-Focusing The Security Community on Defense and Making Security Work for Everyone

• Keynote, Presented by Facebook CSO: Alex Stamos
• This talk will explore how we can adapt to better confront the obstacles we face as security practitioners.

2. And Then the Script-Kiddie Said Let There Be No Light: Are Cyber Attacks on the Power Grid Limited to Nation- State Actors?

• Presented by Anastais Keliris, Mihalis Maniatakos, and Charalambos Konstantinou
• Presenters will demonstrate information obtained from the web that can be leveraged to model and analyze a target power system, and how we can use this information to model power systems throughout the globe.

3.  Bot vs. Bot for Evading Machine Learning Malware Detection

• Presented by Hyum Anderson
•  Teaching the machine learning detector about its blind spots is a simple and powerful idea. Learn more during this presentation.

Additional Events in Las Vegas

Black Hat also coincides with two additional security conferences: DEF CON 25 (July 27-30 at Caesars Palace) and BSidesLV (July 25- 26 at The Tuscany Suites).

Who Can I Meet from Cybrary at Black Hat?

While Cybrary does not have a booth for the event, members of the Team will be in attendance: [gallery size="medium" ids="96848,96847,96849"][gallery size="medium" ids="96852,96851,96850"]