Risk & Repeat: Recapping Black Hat USA 2024

Two of the major themes of Black Hat USA 2024 were the continued maturity of new AI technology and last month's global IT outage caused by a faulty CrowdStrike channel file update.

The Black Hat 2024 conference, which took place last week, included news, sessions and events covering the breadth and depth of the security community. For example, government security leaders from the U.S., U.K. and European Union hosted the conference's Wednesday keynote, which acted as a deep dive into securing election infrastructure during a pivotal global election year. Another focus of the show was cyber insurance, or more specifically how the evolving cyberthreat landscape is influencing coverage.

But above all, the two most prominent topics of discussion were the continuing maturation of generative AI in the security industry and the continued fallout from the global IT outage resulting from an errant update CrowdStrike pushed last month to its Windows servers.

In the former case, many vendor booths prominently advertised AI capabilities, and last Tuesday the conference held a summit dedicated to AI. Many of the conference sessions highlighted security risks and potential threats against the technology, too, including indirect prompt injections.

In the latter case, CrowdStrike opted for a quieter Black Hat, keeping its normal booth space, but publishing a major threat research report it had planned with little fanfare and no media interview. Despite an otherwise quiet showing, CrowdStrike President Michael Sentonas showed up at DEF CON's Pwnie Awards and accepted the award for Most Epic Fail in person.

On this episode of the Risk & Repeat podcast, TechTarget editors Rob Wright and Alex Culafi discuss takeaways from Black Hat 2024.

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Alexander Culafi is a senior information security news writer and podcast host for TechTarget Editorial.