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10 Dramatic Moments In Black Hat History

From Google hacking to ATM "jackpotting" to the NSA -- Black Hat has had some memorable moments over the years.

Ericka Chickowski

Contributing Writer

July 31, 2014

In the wake of the Snowden scandal, then-NSA director General Keith Alexander, in the keynote address to Black Hat USA atten

Before this year's upcoming talk on hacking hotel room automation systems, there was Brocious's bodacious demo of a hack that

A diabetic himself, Radcliffe showed how powerful white hat hacker curiosity can be when he started testing the insulin pumps

In what was possibly one of the most memorable presentations by the late Barnaby Jack, he wowed the packed audience with a de

The old hands in security had been warning anyone who'd listen about how flawed the nation's critical infrastructure systems

A lot of the drama around Kaminsky's huge DNS flaw discovery happened in the months prior to the show, but Black Hat was his

Lynn's controversy upstaged a lot of good research that year, but we shouldn't forget the contribution that Barrall and Dewey

In perhaps one of Black Hat's most dramatic controversies, Michael Lynn put his job and reputation on the line when he presen

What started as a goof ended up yielding serious results as Long first explained how to harness the power of Google to mine t

Before Litchfield built his career on making Larry Ellison regret his "unbreakable" Oracle comments, he first made waves with

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If there is one thing there's no lack of in Las Vegas at the Black Hat conference, it's drama. Mix in big bug discoveries, shocking proofs-of-concept, and big egos with the high stakes of corporate and personal reputations at risk, and you've got a recipe for raucousness. And given the quirky, hilarious, anti-establishment nature of many within the security research community, it's no wonder that that this show continues to deliver dramatic moments year in and year out.

[At Black Hat, researchers will point out the weaknesses in everything from the satellites in outer space to the thermostat in your home. Read 7 Black Hat Sessions Sure To Cause A Stir .]

This year's show is shaping up to be no different. But before we get there, let's take a quick look back at some of the big demos and research highlights of the past so we can see how influential this show's moments have been in shaping the industry.