At Black Hat, AI is helping security pros find threats—and creating new ones
You might think that the information-security professionals who show up in August at the annual Black Hat conference in Las Vegas would know to bring their A game to that gathering. But every year, the administrators of the show’s Network Operations Center (NOC) see a different, messier reality play out over the conference Wi-Fi. And at last week’s Black Hat , AI played an even larger part in…
At Black Hat, AI is proving both a valuable asset and a potential danger to security professionals. The annual conference in Las Vegas sees administrators struggle with a deluge of network alerts during the event. However, the implementation of agentic triage AI has significantly improved threat assessment by identifying suspicious behavior and automatically handling routine cases. This AI-driven approach allows human staff to focus on more critical issues, reducing manual effort and improving efficiency.
Despite the benefits, the introduction of AI also brings new risks. Rogue AI agents and software coded primarily or entirely by AI models often lack essential security measures, such as encryption. Examples include an insecure home camera broadcasting video feeds and an attendee using an unencrypted internet-calling app for sensitive transactions. To address these issues, the Network Operations Center (NOC) advises attendees to scrutinize their own apps for potential data leaks using tools like Wireshark.
Moreover, the NOC emphasizes the importance of using encrypted connections when accessing public Wi-Fi networks. While virtual private networks (VPNs) can help protect against eavesdropping, many VPN providers have bugs that still leak sensitive information. The NOC advocates for a simpler solution: stop using poorly constructed apps altogether.
Written by urgent.news from Fast Company's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
