Black Hat Celebrates 20 Years with Record Breaking USA Event

SAN FRANCISCO, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Black Hat, the world's leading producer of information security events, today highlights 2017 programming that helped make its 20th Black Hat USA event its most robust show to date – both in size and content. The event welcomed 17,400 of the most security-savvy professionals across the InfoSec spectrum – spanning academia, world-class researchers, and leaders in the public and private sectors. The event's record-breaking attendance signifies the growing importance of the information security sector as well as the community's need for rich and timely content.

The Black Hat Review Board, comprised of 24 of the world's foremost security experts, evaluated more submissions this year than ever before – producing the largest program to date. This year's conference welcomed more than 300 speakers and Trainers across nearly 70 deeply technical Trainings and nearly 120 innovative research-based Briefings on stage. For more information about the event and to download available whitepapers and presentations, visit: blackhat.com/us-17/.

Show Highlights

• Keynote Alex Stamos, Chief Security Officer for Facebook and privacy advocate, presented "Stepping up our game: Re-focusing the security community on defense and making security work for everyone" to a packed Mandalay Bay Events Center, which held 7,300 attendees.
• CISO Summit welcomed more than 175 executives from top public and private organizations for an exclusive, program intended to give CISOs and other InfoSec executives more practical insight into the latest security trends and technologies and enterprise best practices.
• Arsenal returned for its eighth year, offering researchers and the open source community the ability to demonstrate tools they develop and use in their daily professions – live. This year's event featured more than 90 tools – the largest lineup to-date.
• New Two-Level Business Hall was buzzing with more than 290 of the industry's leading companies showcasing their latest technologies, as well as a wide range of attendees eager to get a look at what innovations are taking the InfoSec space by storm. Both levels spanned hands on learning, education and demonstrations.

Giving Back & Diversity
Black Hat is driven by the needs of the security community. Giving back and helping to foster the next generation of security professionals is a top priority and we are proud to highlight some of our most recent initiatives: 

• New Diversity Programs: Black Hat's expanded diversity programming has been developed to welcome a wider range of InfoSec professionals to the Black Hat community and shine a light on professional gaps. Offerings provided a platform to discuss current issues and resources to assist individuals in jump starting their careers and continuing their education in the space. 
• Diversity-Focused Partners: Black Hat's new diversity-focused partners included Queercon, International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals (ICMCP), and Women in Security and Privacy (WISP).
• Executive Women's Forum: for the third year, Black Hat partnered with Executive Women's Forum to provide complimentary Briefings passes to nearly 40 women.
• Electronic Frontier Foundation Support: for the fourth year, Black Hat is proudly donating $50,000 to the EFF to continue supporting their important work in protecting civil liberties within the digital world. Black Hat has a strong partnership with the EFF to provide pro-bono legal consultations to security researchers on the legality of any research or data they plan to present at the annual shows.
• Academic Scholarships and Facebook Initiative: Black Hat awarded more than 200 Academic Briefings Scholarships to deserving students from around the world. Of those, nearly half were granted to underrepresented groups and minorities including 35 Scholarships through a special program with Facebook.
• ICMCP: Black Hat gained a grant to provide 25 members of The International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals (ICMCP) with event passes and travel.
• Hack the Hood Support: in support of Hack the Hood, Black Hat developed an exclusive Black Hat USA 2017 t-shirt for the show with all proceeds being directly donated to help bring technology and education to low-income communities in the U.S. and rural communities in developing nations.

Top sponsors of Black Hat USA 2017 include: Diamond Sponsors: Cisco, FireEye, Forcepoint, LogRhythm, McAfee, Qualys, RSA and Tenable Network Security; Platinum Plus Sponsors: AlienVault, Arbor Networks, Carbon Black, CrowdStrike, Cylance, DarkMatter, Digital Guardian, ESET North America, Fidelis Cybersecurity, Fortinet, IBM, Leidos, Palo Alto Networks, Raytheon Foreground Security and Symantec; Platinum Sponsors: Bromium, Code42 Software, Core Security, Cybereason, Darktrace, F5 Networks, iboss cybersecurity, Malwarebytes, Optiv Security, Proofpoint, Inc., Rapid7, SentinelOne, StackPath, Tanium, Trend Micro and Webroot.  For all sponsorship opportunities, visit: blackhat.com/us-17/sponsors.html

What's Next: Black Hat Europe 2017
Following a blockbuster week in Las Vegas, Black Hat is busy preparing for Black Hat Europe 2017, a four-day event taking place December 4-7, 2017 at the ExCeL in London, England. The event will bring together an international security audience for two days of intense classroom-style Trainings followed by two days of the infamous Black Hat Briefings presented by some of the most renowned experts in the industry. For more information and to register, please visit: blackhat.com/eu-17/ 

Connect with Black Hat (#BlackHat and #BHUSA)

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Future Black Hat Dates and Events

• Black Hat Europe 2017, London, England, December 4-7
• Black Hat Asia 2018, Singapore, March 20-23
• Black Hat USA 2018, Las Vegas, Nevada, August 4-9

About Black Hat
For 20 years, Black Hat has provided attendees with the very latest in information security research, development, and trends. These high-profile global events and trainings are driven by the needs of the security community, striving to bring together the best minds in the industry. Black Hat inspires professionals at all career levels, encouraging growth and collaboration among academia, world-class researchers, and leaders in the public and private sectors. Black Hat Briefings and Trainings are held annually in the United States, Europe and Asia. More information is available at: blackhat.com. Black Hat is organized by UBM plc. UBM is the largest pure-play B2B Events organizer in the world. Our 3,750+ people, based in more than 20 countries, serve more than 50 different sectors. Our deep knowledge and passion for these sectors allow us to create valuable experiences which enable our customers to succeed. Please visit www.ubm.com for the latest news and information about UBM. 

SOURCE Black Hat