One of the interesting things about BlackHat is that hackers and CISOs rub elbows. One of the few places where that happens routinely. It’s kinda funny. The CISOs are trying not to look so much like a “suit”, so they wear khakis and polo shirts. The hackers aren’t worried about that, so they wear shorts and t-shirts, kilts, jeans, camo, etc. And have crazy hair and tattoos. I thought of Suits vs. Shorts all week. 🙂
On Monday, with a little rest and a weekend under my belt, Core’s Communications Manager asked me what I thought about BlackHat and how it was different from the past. A couple folks chimed in, not just me, and there’s a good write up on the Core blog. I thought I’d put my relevant thinking in a quote here and invite you to read the whole thing, as well.
Sure, the conference has become much more mainstream,” noted our VP of Advanced Security and Strategy Eric Cowperthwaite. “Some have started to refer to it as ‘RSA Lite.’ I think that is unfair. This is a conference dealing with the concept that anything and everything can be hacked, broken into, attacked, cracked – that’s an idea that only recently went mainstream in the security industry. You now have CISOs and hackers, big and small companies, all mingling together because the security industry is finally embracing reality.
Seems like a good thing, to me, that the suits (myself included) are finally embracing the reality that BlackHat has presented to the security world for a long time now.
