The Black Hat Conference is a computer security conference

Computer security conference

A computer security conference is a term that describes a convention for individuals involved in computer security. They generally serve as a meeting place for system and network administrators, hackers, and computer security experts....

 that brings together a variety of people interested in information security

Information security

Information security means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, perusal, inspection, recording or destruction....

. Representatives of federal agencies and corporations attend along with hackers

Hacker (computer security)

In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...

. The Briefings take place regularly in Las Vegas

Las Vegas metropolitan area

The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...

, Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

 (previously Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

) and Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

. An event dedicated to the Federal Agencies is organized in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

History

Black Hat was founded in 1997 by Jeff Moss

Jeff Moss (hacker)

Jeff Moss, also known as The Dark Tangent, is the founder of the Black Hat and DEF CON computer hacker conferences.Moss graduated from Gonzaga University with a BA in Criminal Justice...

, most famous for creating the Black Hat and DEF CON

DEF CON

DEF CON is one of the world's largest annual computer hacker conventions, held every year in Las Vegas, Nevada...

, which are considered the premier information Security conferences in the world, Black Hat 2009 hosting 4,000 digital experts and professionals. Black Hat started as a single annual conference held yearly in Las Vegas, and is now held in multiple locations around the world.

The Conference

Black Hat is composed of two major sections, the Black Hat Briefings, and Black Hat Trainings. Training is offered by various Computer security

Computer security

Computer security is a branch of computer technology known as information security as applied to computers and networks. The objective of computer security includes protection of information and property from theft, corruption, or natural disaster, while allowing the information and property to...

 vendors, in effort to keep the conference vendor-neutral. In the past, the conference has hosted the National Security Agency's

National Security Agency

The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...

 Information Assurance Manager course, and various courses by Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...

, Offensive Security, and others.

The Briefings are composed of Tracks, covering various topics including Reverse Engineering,
Identity and Privacy, and hacking. The briefings also contain keynote speeches from leading voices in the information security field, including Kevin Mitnick

Kevin Mitnick

Kevin David Mitnick is a computer security consultant, author, and hacker. In the late 20th century, he was convicted of various computer- and communications-related crimes. At the time of his arrest, he was the most-wanted computer criminal in the United States.-Personal life:Mitnick grew up in...

, Robert Lentz Chief Security Officer

Chief security officer

A chief security officer is a corporation's top executive who is responsible for security.The CSO generally serves as the business leader responsible for the development, implementation and management of the organization’s corporate security vision, strategy and programs...

, United States Department of Defense

United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

; Michael Lynn

Michael Lynn

Michael Thomas Lynn is an American computer security expert currently employed by Juniper Networks and known for his presentation on vulnerabilities in Cisco IOS at Black Hat and the controversy with Cisco Systems that followed...

, and Amit Yoran

Amit Yoran

Amit Yoran was the National Cyber Security Division director within the United States Department of Homeland Security. He took up the post in September 2003 and resigned in October 2004....

, former Director

Director-general

The term director-general is a title given the highest executive officer within a governmental, statutory, NGO, third sector or not-for-profit institution.-European Union:...

 of the National Cyber Security Division

National Cyber Security Division

The National Cyber Security Division is a division of the Office of Cyber Security & Communications, within the United States Department of Homeland Security's Directorate for National Protection and Programs...

 of the Department of Homeland Security.

Antics and disclosures

Black Hat is known for the antics of its hacker contingent, and the disclosures brought in its talks. Conference attendees have been known to hijack wireless connections of the hotels, hack hotel TV billing systems, and even hack the Automatic Teller Machine in a hotel lobby. In 2009, Web sites belonging to a handful of security researchers and groups were hacked and passwords, private e-mails, IM chats, and sensitive documents were exposed on the vandalized site of Dan Kaminsky

Dan Kaminsky

Dan Kaminsky is an American security researcher. He formerly worked for Cisco, Avaya, and IOActive, where he was the Director of Penetration Testing...

, days before the conference. During Black Hat 2009, a USB thumb drive that was passed around among attendees of Black Hat was found to be infected with the Conficker

Conficker

Conficker, also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido, is a computer worm targeting the Microsoft Windows operating system that was first detected in November 2008...

 virus

Computer virus

A computer virus is a computer program that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability...

, and in 2008, three men were expelled for packet sniffing the press room Local Area Network

Län

Län and lääni refer to the administrative divisions used in Sweden and previously in Finland. The provinces of Finland were abolished on January 1, 2010....

 at Black Hat.

In the past, companies have attempted to bar researchers from disclosing vital information about their products. At Black Hat 2005, Cisco Systems tried to stop researcher Michael Lynn

Michael Lynn

Michael Thomas Lynn is an American computer security expert currently employed by Juniper Networks and known for his presentation on vulnerabilities in Cisco IOS at Black Hat and the controversy with Cisco Systems that followed...

 from speaking about a vulnerability

Vulnerability (computing)

In computer security, a vulnerability is a weakness which allows an attacker to reduce a system's information assurance.Vulnerability is the intersection of three elements: a system susceptibility or flaw, attacker access to the flaw, and attacker capability to exploit the flaw...

 that he said could let hackers virtually shut down the Internet. However in recent years, researchers have worked with vendors to resolve issues, and some vendors have challenged hackers to attack

Attack (computer)

In computer and computer networks an attack is any attempt to destroy, expose, alter, disable, steal or gain unauthorized access to or make unauthorized use of an asset.- IETF :Internet Engineering Task Force defines attack in RFC 2828 as:...

their products.