Sights around Black Hat 2010 (photos)

See what CNET's reporters are seeing at this year's gathering of security professionals in Las Vegas.

Seth Rosenblatt

Aug. 13, 2010 10:37 a.m. PT

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Black Hat

Black Hat 2010

The professional security crowd meets annually for the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, and this year's confab features ATM hacking and insecure electric meter reading, along with the latest in securing users from software vendors like Mozilla and Qualys.

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Homeland Security in cyberspace

In her keynote speech that kicked off the conference on Wednesday, Jane Lute, Homeland Security deputy secretary, says "there will be rules" online.

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Infrastructure meets insecurity

Jonathan Pollet, founder of Red Tiger Security, tells Black Hat attendees on Wednesday that security issues arising from modernizing critical infrastructure systems are creating a "ticking time bomb."

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Mozilla

Firefox gets more secure

Mozilla Security Program Manager Brandon Sterne demonstrated on Wednesday how this ostensibly dull code, which is part of Firefox 4's new Content Security Policy, will make the next-generation browser safer.

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Barnaby Jack and his ATM hack

Barnaby Jack discusses the ramifications of his ATM hack on the first day of Black Hat 2010.

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The ATM hack aftermath

Black Hat 2010 attendees grab wads of fake money spewed out by an ATM machine hacked by Barnaby Jack.

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Hayden discusses global cyberthreats

Former Deputy Director of National Intelligence Gen. Michael Hayden addresses questions about cybersecurity on an international level at a press conference Thursday morning.

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Invincea

Invincea adds hardware virtualizatrion to the sandbox

Security vendor Invincea demonstrated its hardware-based virtualization sandbox on Wednesday, as indicated by the red border in this screenshot. The program is currently limited to enterprise clients using Internet Explorer and Adobe Reader, but the company has plans to make the software available to home users and expand its reach to include other browsers such as Firefox.

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More bad news for SSL

At the Black Hat security conference on Thursday researcher Robert "RSnake" Hansen brings more bad news for the much beleaguered SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), which is designed to secure communications over the Internet. The CEO and founder of consulting firm SecTheory, Hansen and others have discovered 24 new issues with how SSL is implemented. While "the sky is not falling," the problems could be devastating for e-commerce, Hansen said.

Crpyto expert fights back against GSM snooping

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Crpyto expert fights back against GSM snooping

Crypto expert Karsten Nohl released a tool that people can use to test whether their mobile phones can be snooped on and hopes the move will spur telecom providers to patch their GSM networks.

DMCA "chilling" free speech, says attorney

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DMCA "chilling" free speech, says attorney

Attorney Tiffany Rad, the president of technology, law, and business development firm ELCnetworks, spoke on Thursday about what she called the "chilling" effect the DMCA is having on free speech, and how using TOR and offshore data centers can help create subpoena-resistant (but not subpoena-proof) jurisdictions.

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Nerdcore delights

Nerdcore rapper David Martinjak, aka "int eighty" from the group Dual Core, on stage with guest rapper "Dr. Raid" at the Electronic Frontier Foundation's pre-Defcon, post-Black Hat fundraiser Thursday night.