If you’re attending Black Hat 2019 and media coverage is one of your goals, it helps to know what will be top of mind for reporters.
No matter what research you have to reveal, having a good news hook can be key to coverage. We helped client Sixgill earn coverage around the Capital One data breach in USA Today and MarketWatch, which highlighted and linked back to Sixgill’s dark web research.
So what stories and angles will give you the best shot at media coverage? We gathered some of the more popular cybersecurity stories — both national and niche — that the media have been covering leading up to the show. Take a look.
Credit: Black Hat USA 2019
The Capital One data breach continues to unfold
This national story generated over 6,100 articles since Tuesday, according to NewsWhip data, and it’ll definitely be a topic of conversation heading into Black Hat.
FoxNews.com had the most-shared story, with more than 11,000 total interactions. NBCNews.com was second with 5,600 interactions.
Stay tuned this week for angles you can take on this developing story. The primary story on the consumer side, which is always the case after a large hack/breach, is what should consumers do now. On the business and legislative side, watch for the story to evolve in the coming weeks and months.
Election security remains in the spotlight
Another national story, election security will be a topic to address through 2020.
According to Black Hat USA research, “More than 60% of cybersecurity experts say it is likely that hacking of voting machines will affect the next U.S. election — the same percentage of professionals (63%) believe that Russian cyber initiatives will specifically have a significant impact on the U.S. presidential election in 2020.”
The Voting Village at DEFCON has upgraded its offerings this year, “including election software that researchers have not had a chance to audit and the first test of equipment designed specifically for security and public testing,” according to Axios.
Threat Post points out that election security topics will be even bigger next year as we get closer to the election.
The threat of deep fakes to business
Deep fakes continue to gain momentum in the media as a potential security threat. Help Net Security points to industry experts who “speculate that deep fake attacks will increase over the next year and will significantly impact enterprises, financial institutions, and private citizens.”
Threat Post notes that deep fakes have been “increasingly cited on the news over the last year,” and points to a Black Hat session on detecting deep fakes with mice as one of the more intriguing presentations.
Credit: Black Hat USA 2019
Vulnerabilities around major companies
Any researcher who can reveal vulnerabilities about high-profile companies or widespread software, like iOS, increases the chances of reporters writing about that research.
Many reporters will write only one story about the show, and research with name recognition can stand out and earn that story.
Media offer a teaser of research that’ll be presented at Black Hat
This is a strategy to try next year if you’re heading into the show with fresh research. There were a number of examples previewing Black Hat presentations:
- Corporate VPN flaws via TechCrunch
- VxWorks vulnerability via Wired
- IoT vulnerabilities via ZDNet
- Events not to miss via Security Boulevard
The bottom line
If you can connect your own research, products, or services to these stories and others that are bubbling up, you can raise your chances of conversations with major media, and potentially a story. Or maybe create a strong visual and connect it to a trending topic in the space, like Google, which just published this interactive map logging and visualizing ransomware attacks.
We’ll be watching what stories and content are gaining attention from the show floor. Follow along here:
And if you’re headed to the show, watch out for the grasshoppers.
WATCH: Grasshoppers invade Las Vegas pic.twitter.com/oX9aY2uK1O
— Bloomberg TicToc (@tictoc) July 29, 2019
All photos courtesy of Black Hat USA 2019.