As Black Hat Conference 2021 kicks off

As Black Hat Conference 2021 kicks off amid vendor cancellations and a surge in COVID-19 cases in Las Vegas, CRN speaks with 14 prominent executives to see what cybersecurity trends they expect to be the talk of this year’s even.

Security In An Unsafe

Black Hat has grown over the past quarter-century into the premier stage for cybersecurity professionals to share cutting-edge research and insight through demos, technical trainings and hands-on labs, with 20,200 attendees and more than 300 cybersecurity vendors gathering in Las Vegas in 2019 to hear from more than 500 speakers and visit a bustling Business Hall.But the recent Delta variant-fueled surge of COVID-19 cases in Las Vegas will keep in-person attendance at Black Hat 2021 to just 5,000 and prompted three high-level sponsors—Palo Alto Networks, Qualys and Trend Micro—to pull out of the in-person event entirely in the week leading up to the show. Black Hat keynotes and briefings will be available digitally for 30 days, and there will also be a virtual Busines Hall.“In light of CDC guidance on the COVID-19 Delta variant and out of concern for the safety of Qualys employees, Black Hat attendees and residents of Las Vegas, Qualys has made the tough decision to forgo our in-person presence at Black Hat USA 2021,” Qualys wrote on LinkedIn Saturday. “We were very much looking forward to being at the event in person and will continue to support it through our virtual presence.”As Black Hat Conference 2021 kicks off, CRN spoke with executives from 14 prominent cybersecurity vendors to see what they expect to be the major areas of focus at this year’s event. From ransomware, supply chain and critical infrastructure attacks to third-party risk management, zero trust architectures and AI-enabled threat intelligence, here are the cybersecurity trends experts are watching for at the show.

The cyber security threat landscape changes fast, and for most companies it’s a struggle to keep on top of the latest trends, each designed to compromise operations.

As detailed in the Sophos 20-year retrospective, we have moved from worms in the early 2000s, to botnets and cyber weapons like Stuxnet in the period to 2012, and are now facing a huge rise in ransomware as a service, alongside nation-state-sponsored attacks, organised crime, hacktivists, and disgruntled insiders or angry customers.

This ever-adapting horizon forced the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – a part of GCHQ – to refresh its 10 Steps to Cyber Security guidance in May. The publication assists FTSE 350 companies, and others, in understanding the upcoming challenges and how to deal with them.

This updated version included details on the growth of cloud services and the shift to home working due to the pandemic, plus an acknowledgement of how the face of ransomware is changing and becoming more severe.

14 Top Cybersecurity Trends To Expect At Black Hat Conference

Security In An Unsafe

How the cyber security threat landscape is changing