I just got back from my first Black Hat and it was an interesting experience. It was crazy to see three completely different security-focused events going on in town all at once. There was Black Hat, B-Sides Las Vegas, and DEFCON all within the space of a day or so of each other. People were flowing back and forth between them all and it was quite amazing.

A wanted to share a few quick thoughts about the event from my perspective being a first timer.

• The show floor wasn’t as bit as VMworld or Cisco Live, but it was as big as it needed to be. Lots of companies that I’ve heard of, but several more that were new to me. That’s usually a good sign of lots of investment in the security space.
• Speaking of which, I talked to quite a few companies about a variety of analytics, telemetry, and insider threat monitoring solutions. And almost all of them had a founder from Israel or someone that was involved in the cybersecurity areas of the IDF. That’s a pretty good track record for where the investment is going.
• The Vegas booth gimmicks never change. I think I’ve spent too much time at Vegas conferences because I’m starting to recognize the magicians and other “performers” at the booths. I’m glad they can get some work but I don’t know if the companies realize that there needs to be some new blood out there.
• I found it very different that you could print pretty much any name on your badge that you wanted. I saw a few El Chapos, Pablo Escobars, and even a generic “IT Buyer”. Consequently, people were a little curious about my Twitter badge flag. I guess the idea of announcing your identity to people is a bit strange at a security conference.
• Being on the press list for the event meant that I got to see some cool briefings. But it also meant sorting through some things that didn’t make sense. And there there was the Quasi-Prime Number presentation spam that I got. I don’t go into much more detail other than to point you to this Twitter thread which is a comedy goldmine of the presentation referenced in said email. Thanks to @MalwareJake for pointing out the original thread and all the amazing comments about how the harmony of music can be an input into crypto randomization.
• Lastly, I wish I would have had more time to go down and check out DEFCON. A lot of my friends that were in town were there and seemed to be having the time of their lives. DEFCON seems more in line with my Batman job instead of my Bruce Wayne job though. Guess I’ll have to take some vacation to check out DEFCON next year.

Ultimately, I had a great time checking out Black Hat. There were some parts that needed polish and some things about having 20,000+ in Vegas that I’m not keen on. But it’s a successful conference and likely will be one I attend in 2020. If for no other reason than to give my VPN a workout again!