Welcome to Black Hat, where the attendees are the threat

Re:Welcome to Black Hat, where the attendees are the threat by cr0sh on Friday August 09, 2019 @02:14PM (#20656942)

Ok - haven't read the article, paywall, etc - but from what I've heard elsewhere, the tagline should be "...are the Feds"

Maybe that's more a joke than anything - but it wouldn't surprise me to find out that the Fed to Blackhat ratio wasn't something huge, and those actual BH attendees were either other researchers who go to "be cool" (or legitimately present research), or were major "n00bs" who don't understand what they are trying to get into, and will likely end up in the Feds hands in short order.

Or maybe all of them are faking it?

It just seems like - if you were a real BH worth your salt - a conference of any sort where you effectively are advertising your creds would be avoided. If you went at all, you'd want to do it under the radar. At which point you might as well go to DefCon, Hope or something.

Its an interesting scene nonetheless - which maybe is why there are any attendees at all; maybe the whole thing is just one giant form of cosplay LARP - and the people who participate are really BH's and LEO's? Like some kind of weird meta-thing going on...?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Welcome to Black Hat, where the attendees are the threat by roblabla on Friday August 09, 2019 @04:53PM (#20658173)

Did you watch any of the BlackHat talks? We're very much talking about cybersecurity professionals - there's no faking that level of expertise. And just like any cybersecurity conference, there are people from all sides coming - likely both on the offensive and defensive sides. And yeah, of course the feds are there: cybersecurity is also part of their job.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Welcome to Black Hat, where the attendees are the threat by Avery3R on Friday August 09, 2019 @05:04PM (#20658245)

The only people that call the field "cybersecurity" are the feds, and people trying to make money from the feds.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Welcome to Black Hat, where the attendees are the threat by 95014_refugee on Friday August 09, 2019 @09:44PM (#20659647)

I wish that were (still) the case, because listening to someone talking about "cyber"-anything makes me feel like a 5-year-old.

Sadly the term has stuck, and making fun of it these days has reduced to just maturity/age-signalling.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Welcome to Black Hat, where the attendees are the threat by unethical_ban on Monday August 12, 2019 @10:20AM (#20675626)

Who are you to say? What would be the "correct" term, my gatekeeper? Information Security? Anti-Cracking? Black Hate Defense?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Welcome to Black Hat, where the attendees are the threat by YurtleTheTurtle on Friday August 09, 2019 @02:42PM (#20657189)

Lots of infosec and cybersecurity professionals go. I assume they make up the largest group of attendees.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Welcome to Black Hat, where the attendees are the threat by Avery3R on Friday August 09, 2019 @05:06PM (#20658265)

Blackhat is mega expensive, the only people that can afford to attend are those employed by large corporations or government entities.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Welcome to Black Hat, where the attendees are the threat by Fnoord on Friday August 09, 2019 @05:08PM (#20658270)

Perhaps you can argue with examples or statistical analysis why a conference like BlackHat has a lower quality of attendance than CCC/DC/Hope. Without that, it seems like some kind of wild theory with no merit. Or: "what's in a name?"

[ Parent | on HN ]