Arriving at the keynote hall for Black Hat 2022, I was immediately struck by the size of the crowd – after the seemingly endless pandemic hiatus, the cyber industry had come out in force.  The mood was one of enthusiasm, and the entire place reverberated with the vibrancy of reunion. It was a great event for the industry – and for HelpSystems – and a few things stuck out.

25 Years of Black Hat

This being the 25th year for Black Hat, founder Jeff Moss spoke about its beginnings, and as with many successful ventures, it began with a strong personal network. He contacted his friends in the industry to join as speakers, building the conference session by session. And part of the Black Hat success story proves that you have to stay alert for good ideas, even if they come up casually. The original name for the event was going to be something like “Network Security Conference,” but one day his marketing director walked up and said “That’s boring. You should call it Black Hat. That sounds scary,” and walked away. And, voila! – Black Hat was born!

The Business Hall and Keynotes

Keynote speaker Chris Krebs recounted details about his time as the Director of CISA, and what he and others see happening in cyber today. Encouragingly, given the cyber workforce shortage, he sees new workers making the workforce younger and more tech-savvy, which is leading to enhanced productivity. But, on a darker note, he said his contacts in national security believe that escalating tensions between China and Taiwan mean it isn’t a question of if a full clash will occur, but when. This clearly has implications for cybersecurity, as cyberwarfare is likely to be a key part of the conflict.

The business hall was (Read more...)