After wrapping up an absolutely electric week at Black Hat 2023 and DEF CON 31, we’re still riding the high. Not even hundreds of flights getting canceled and rerouted during peak travel days and the Las Vegas strip getting shut down to prepare for Formula 1 events could kill the buzz from this event. With thousands of people visiting the Bugcrowd booth, we loved the opportunity to meet in person with customers, partners, hackers, and security professionals.

Over the past few years, AI has dominated the conversation at many cybersecurity events. We found that it was especially prevalent at Black Hat this year, which is understandable considering the mainstream adoption of generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT. During the Dark Reading News Desk interview on the second day of the event, Bugcrowd CEO Dave Gerry said,“we’re really focusing on the role that AI is going to continue to play in security, both from the perspective of defenders–how do we help enable them to be more efficient and productive–and adversaries–what does AI empower them to do and what do we need to do as an industry to put guardrails around that.”

In the same interview, Casey Ellis, Bugcrowd Founder and CTO, added, “we did a recent report called Inside the Mind of a Hacker that has a lot of compelling findings about how AI is impacting cybersecurity. 72% of hackers don’t expect AI to ever replace human creativity. I believe the main reason for that is we are all here because of creative adversaries. If we solve all of our problems with AI, the adversaries aren’t going to go home. They are going to innovate past that. That is where the cat and mouse game of security comes into play.” 

You can watch the whole interview here. 

1. The Bugcrowd Theater was busier than an AMC on Barbenheimer weekend. 

Thanks to everyone who joined us in our in-booth theater. We hosted 10 informative sessions with speakers from T-Mobile, Cycognito, Braze, Taxslayer, and BigCommerce, plus leading hackers on the Bugcrowd Platform and thought-leaders at Bugcrowd. Some of the most popular sessions included Unleash the Ingenuity of the Cybersecurity Industry: The Unlikely Romance by Casey Ellis and Secure with Rewards: T-Mobile Bug Bounty Program by Mark Clancy, SVP of Cyber Transformation at T-Mobile. 

2. Three is better than one, especially when it comes to specialist panel discussions. 

During DEF CON 31, Casey Ellis joined a panel discussion led by the Hacking Policy Council, where he is an advisory committee member. The Hacking Policy Council aims to “make technology safer and more transparent by facilitating best practices for vulnerability disclosure and management, as well as empowering good faith security research, penetration testing, and independent repair for security.” Casey joined Katie Noble from Intel and Harley Geiger from Venable for the All your Vulns Belong to Terms and Conditions panel, covering common questions around bug submissions and disclosure delays. 

3. Launches>Lunches…And T-Mobile’s launch hit the spot. 

We joined T-Mobile for their happy hour at the S Bar in Mandalay Bay to wrap up the Black Hat festivities. The happy hour had a great energy, with drinks, food, swag, giveaways, and an exciting announcement—the launch of T-Mobile’s program with Bugcrowd. This program is a great opportunity for hackers to hunt on T-Mobile’s applications and systems in order to find potential security vulnerabilities and report them. Keep your eyes peeled for more information coming soon! We love working with customers who are so committed to protecting their customers, employees, partners, and brand.

4. Sometimes the b-side is better than the singles. And the Las Vegas BSides are really where it’s at. 

As part of Black Hat, Casey Ellis stepped in to present at Las Vegas BSides in a presentation called Hungry Hungry Hackers: A Hacker’s Eye-view of the Food Supply. This 45-minute, intimate session had a conversational tone with tons of audience participation. Casey told the story of the work Sick.Codes and himself did to change the perception of cybersecurity criticality in the food industry. He gave insights into how hackers can use research to make positive and meaningful changes in the world. 

5. Security professionals + a giant chandelier = the best night.

Look, here at Bugcrowd, we know we can throw a pretty great party. But sometimes, even we surprise ourselves. Yep, we accidentally threw the biggest Black Hat party of the year. Imagine a killer playlist, a bar flowing with cocktails, mocktails, and other Vegas libations, and the famous Chandelier Bar packed shoulder-to-shoulder with security professionals letting loose after a long conference day. Thanks to everyone who came and contributed to the energy of the evening! 

6. Bugcrowd is #SwagGoals.  

We can’t help it that we’re popular 🤷 Our t-shirt printing station was an absolute hit, printing off Bugcrowd favorites like “my other computer is your computer” and “find the gap.” And you know we don’t mess around when it comes to stickers… We launched some brand new stickers this year that instantly became fan favorites, inspired by old-school horror movies. Check out our virtual swag store. 

Well, that’s a wrap on Black Hat 2023. We hope to see you at Black Hat and DEF CON next year, and hopefully before that too! Check out more pictures from the event on our Twitter feed.

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