Any Apple at Black Hat?

Black hat is again opening its doors in Abu Dhabi, starting December 14. Anyone interested in computer and information security should make sure they attend. I was fortunate enough to attend Black Hat in Las Vegas earlier this year and what surprised me was how many of the sessions had something to do with Mac and iOS.

By Magnus Nystedt (PRODUCT REVIEW)

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Published: Sat 10 Dec 2011, 11:58 PM

Last updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 8:02 AM

But let’s back up for a second. Black Hat is a technical security conference that goes into the nuts and bolts of computer and information security. At least that’s how Travis Carelock, Technical Director of Black Hat, explained it when I interviewed him in Las Vegas. Carelock talked to me on the first day of Black Hat there, during what was a couple of very busy days for him as he juggled presentations, interviews and more. “We focus on the tech; we go into the nuts and bolts of security,” he said. “We bring the research to the community.”

And looking at the sessions at the Las Vegas Black Hat that seemed pretty obvious. You have to be pretty into the whole security field to get something out of attending. But let’s go back to the issue of Apple. There were many sessions about Apple topics, including “Apple iOS Security Evaluation: Vulnerability Analysis and Data Encryption,” “Exploiting the iOS Kernel,” “Macs in the Age of the APT,” and “Battery Firmware Hacking.” That last session was especially intersting as it dealt with hacking the firmware in batteries portable Macs, like MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

With the increasing sales of Macs and especially with all the iOS devices around, it sure would make sense for Apple to get more attention at something like Black Hat. Whether there will be much Apple-talk in Abu Dhabi remains to be seen. There’s not much giving anything away on the website as of yet and no Apple that I can spot.

In Las Vegas I also asked Carelock what was behind the seemingly increasing number of public hacking incidents, with Sony PSN, various Anonymous attacks, and others happening since the beginning of the year.

His answer surprised me: “It’s not that there is more hacking going on, it’s just that the bad guys have got good at PR.” That surprised me quite a bit because I’ve never even considered that the bad guys that create malware and hack into systems would have to be good at marketing what they do, in a sense. But I guess the days of the lonely geek sitting in their bedroom and hacking into somewhere just for the fun of it are over. Today it’s organised crime with commercial interests that have taken over. And with that in mind perhaps it makes sense to throw in PR as well.

I doubt that the PR aspect of computer and information security will be on the agenda at Black Hat in Abu Dhabi. But I do sincerely hope that the attendees can select from various topis involving Apple. Unfortunately I can’t attend myself but I will follow what happens as closely as I can anyway.

Magnus Nystedt @mnystedt


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