Sean Michael Kerner

Security researchers often walk a very thin line between what is legal and what is illegal, and knowing the difference is not all that easy, especially given the current state of the law. So what do security researchers need to know about the law? Attorney Marcia Hoffman addressed that question during a pair of speaking […]

Many good open-source software tools are freely available for penetration testers (and hackers) for testing the security of WiFi networks and their users. Getting those tools to run on a given computer isn’t always easy, and walking around with a notebook running WiFi penetration tools isn’t exactly the right approach if you’re trying to be […]

Working in the bits and bytes software world of IT security, it’s often easy to forget that the world around us still very much relies on physical security. It’s a reminder I was served this past week when I spent far more time than I care to admit inside the Lockpick and Tamper Evident Villages […]

A security researcher speaking at the Black Hat conference last week has exposed the malicious underworld of Booter services that offers paying customers distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack capabilities on demand. Lance James, chief scientist at Vigilant, explained to eWEEK that he got pulled into an investigation into the world of Booter services by […]

LAS VEGAS—Industrial control infrastructure that is used to monitor and manage devices and sensors can be remotely exploited, potentially leading to a cataclysmic failure, according to at least two sets of researchers speaking at the Black Hat security conference this week. Researchers from security firm IOActive detailed their findings in a session provocatively titled “Compromising […]

LAS VEGAS—The annual Def Con Hacking Conference is in full swing this weekend and with it comes all the events and competitions that are core to its existence. This year one competition in particular really caught my eye is the Crack Me If You Can contest, which is sponsored by KoreLogic Security. Love them or […]

LAS VEGAS—Phishing is about to get a whole lot more personal, thanks to ethical hackers at Trustwave. A new tool that is being released at the Black Hat security conference by security researchers from Trustwave aims to improve social engineering attacks with more targeted and convincing spear-phishing messages. The tool uses online activity as a […]

LAS VEGAS—The chief engineer of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab shared his wisdom Aug. 1 at the Black Hat security conference here on the key steps and best practices that IT people can take to help insure they innovate successfully. Brian Muirhead is quite literally a rocket scientist who helped lead an era in technology that […]

LAS VEGAS—For as many years as I’ve been coming to Black Hat, one of my favorite activities has been sitting in the Pwnie awards. The Pwnie Awards is a set of awards that are given out in different categories symbolizing the triumphs of security researchers and the failures of security product vendors or corporate IT […]

UPDATED SEPT. 28, 2016: In the last three years, much has changed in RFID technology. In 2013, 125KHz RFID proximity badges were the default in nearly all deployments, but that’s no longer the case in 2016. In a follow-up interview, Francis Brown, managing partner at security firm Bishop Fox, noted that since 2013, he has […]