Reading about digital security can sometimes be like a horror novel that leaves you trembling and nervous. At no time is this more true than Black Hat, the industry conference that attracts hackers from around the world to share their best discoveries. If you wanted to rest easy tonight, stop reading now. If you're brave, then just jump ahead to our hand-dandy slideshow.
Barnaby Jack and Edward Snowden
While this year's Black Hat was bigger than ever, the two most talked about individuals were not in the room. First was famed hacker Barnaby Jack, who died suddenly just days before he was scheduled to appear that conference. Jack had received a lot of attention for some of his attacks on what would come to be called the Internet of Things. In 2010, for instance, he had ATMs on stage and spewing cash at his command. Last year, he demonstrated how to attack insulin pumps remotely with potentially deadly results. This year, Jack promised to go even further.
The other invisible attendee was noted leaker and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who helped reveal the NSA's PRSIM and Xkeyscore surveillance programs. The facts about what these programs do and do not do, and who they target, are hazy at best, but have spurred discussions about privacy, security, and the limits of legal data collection.
In response to these issues, NSA director General Keith Alexander delivered the conference's keynote speech in an attempt to tell the intelligence fraternity's point of view. Alexander promised to give the audience the truth, but what that means might still be open for debate. Somehow, the General managed to never breathe the name of Snowden during the one-hour presentation.
Hair-Raising Hacks
Along with this unusually high drama of this year's Black Hat were the usual slew of incredible hacking projects, which covered everything from toilets to iPhones. While they make for good news stories (and paranoia-inducing reading), the hope is that publicizing these issues will help solve them faster.
That's hopefully the case for the iPhone Mactans hack (take a look at the slideshow) but especially the billion browser botnet attack, the creators of which admitted that they had no good solutions.
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