Black Hat, DefCon Put Car Hacking, Web Privacy on Center Stage

Car hacking was a key theme at the two Las Vegas security conferences this year, along with Internet privacy, Android security, new hacker tools and more.

The question of Internet freedom is one that Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, discussed in her keynote. Looking out 20 years into the future, Granick worries that Internet users won’t be aware of technology decisions made by others that affect their rights and privacy.

In front of an overflowing room, Twitter security researcher Charles Miller and IOactive Director of Vehicle Security Research Chris Valasek took great pleasure in a highly entertaining hour-long session detailing the steps and the outcome of their car hacking research. The demonstrated how they hacked a Jeep remotely.

Google announced the largest update for Android, with patches rolling out for Nexus, Samsung and LG devices to fix the Stagefright vulnerability.

Colby Moore, manager of special activities at Synack, detailed security risks in the GlobalStar simplex Satcom protocol that could potentially enable attackers to do all manner of malicious things.

Ang Sui, founder of Red Balloon Security, demonstrated and provided great detail into a proof-of-concept security attack, called the Funtenna, which turns a.m. radio into a hacking tool. “Funtenna is malware that intentionally causes compromising emanation,” Sui said.

A big part of Black Hat USA 2015 was the show floor, where vendor booths detailed technologies and services.

Among the interesting booths on the show floor was one from Blue Coat, which included an actor dressed up to look like a Terminator.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation had a Black Hat booth to inform attendees about the bureau’s activities and to recruit new talent.

One of the many categories at the Pwnie Awards is for the Most Epic Fail, with this year’s nominees including the Ashley Madison and U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) hacks. OPM came away with this year’s Most Epic Fail award, as the hack of its systems put the records of 25.7 million Americans at risk.

The new Car Hacking Village at DefCon provided an opportunity for attendees to learn and hack modern automotive systems, including anti-lock brakes, driver information systems and other connected systems.