Sean Michael Kerner

LAS VEGAS—Intel has done a lot of work in recent years developing technologies that improve the security of firmware that underpins modern computing systems. At the Black Hat USA security conference here, Alex Matrosov, principal research scientist at Cylance, will detail multiple issues he found in UEFI firmware protections used by major motherboard vendors, in […]

LAS VEGAS—At the Black Hat USA 2016 event last year, Francis Brown, Managing Partner at security firm Bishop Fox demonstrated the Danger Drone, an airborne hacking device. This year Brown and Bishop Fox returned to the Black Hat Conference to discuss how to prevent drone-borne hacking or other forms of espionage, in a colorfully-named Black […]

LAS VEGAS—Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos outlined his views in an hour-long keynote at the Black Hat USA conference here on how the security industry should improve and also announced new investments to boost security. Stamos is no stranger to Black Hat, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. He said that in […]

LAS VEGAS—Providing WiFi to 16,000 people in a busy conference center is not always an easy task, especially when many of the users are actively trying to hack the network. Yet, that’s the situation at the Black Hat USA 2017 security conference underway here this week. For the 2017 event, WiFi is being provided by […]

LAS VEGAS—Briefing executive management on security issues isn’t always an easy task, but it’s one that Matt Devost, managing director at Accenture, has 20 years of experience doing. Devost is planning on sharing his lessons learned in a session at the Black Hat USA conference here on July 26. In an interview in advance of […]

LAS VEGAS—There is a prevailing theme in many security breach reports that attackers are using increasingly sophisticated and advanced tools. According to Waylon Grange, senior threat researcher at Symantec, that’s not necessarily the case, as many remote access malware tools are neither advanced nor sophisticated. Grange, who is also known by his alias Professor Plum, […]

On the information security calendar, this week is known by many as “hacker summer camp,” with a trio of security conferences ongoing: Black Hat USA, BSides LV and the DefCon. The most enterprise-friendly event of the week is the annual Black Hat USA security conference, which is taking place at the Mandalay Bay in Las […]

10 Tips to Stay Safe When You’re at Black Hat or Everywhere Else The annual Black Hat USA security conference is underway this week, with training running from July 22 -25 and briefings on July 26 and 27 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The Black Hat network can be a hostile one, with […]

When IBM launched its X-Force Red security testing team a year ago, the stated purpose was to help organizations improve security with better testing. Today, IBM X-Force Red is expanding its offerings with new connected car and internet of things security services. The size and broad scope of IBM’s overall business provides X-Force Red with […]

As cyber-threats continue to grow, so too do the costs and risks associated with cyber-insurance. In a 56-page report, insurance provider Lloyd’s of London and cyber-risk analytics firm Cyence provide metrics and insight into how to measure and evaluate modern cyber-risks. Among the top-line findings in the report is that in a worst case scenario for […]

The Internet Bug Bounty (IBB) has raised new funding, in an effort to help reward and encourage security researchers to responsibly disclose vulnerabilities in open-source software. The IBB is backed by Facebook, the Ford Foundation and GitHub, who are now donating a total of $300,000 to help secure the internet with an open-source bug bounty […]

No company has ever patched as many vulnerabilities in a single patch update as Oracle did this month. Oracle released its July Critical Patch Update (CPU) this week, fixing a staggering 308 vulnerabilities.  The previous record high for Oracle was April 2017, when the company fixed 299 vulnerabilities across its software portfolio. To date in […]