
Joseph Menn: Observations From Two Decades Of Tech Journalism
Covering technology issues, and specifically cybersecurity as a journalist is a tough endeavor. Some of these technologies are complex as are the security vulnerabilities often inherent in their deployment and making these topics broadly accessible can be a challenge. Many of the underlying issues touch upon national security and civil

The Tianfu Cup, iOS PoC Exploits and the Future of Global Hacker Competitions
A Chinese Team (Katzebin) won the Def Con 29 CTF competition. It was the second year in a row that a Chinese team had won the competition. Considering the recent Communist Party of China (CPC) restrictions on hacker participation in CTF events outside of the CPC, how were the Chinese team participating in a 2021 CTF in Vegas? Recently, we returned to researching this question. In so doing, it converged with Apple, Inc., The iPhone IOS, the privacy wars between Google and Apple, CPC surveillance technologies, The NSO Group, and the Chinese suppression of the Uighurs in Xinjiang, a northwestern province of China.

A Call to Action from CISA’s Jen Easterly and Def Con’s Jeff Moss at Inaugural CISA Advisory Committee Mtg.
In the first meeting of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) new Cybersecurity Advisory Committee, CISA Director Jen Easterly made clear to the committee members their working model would be action-based, not the usual passive mode assumed by an advisory body, telling the group: “I welcome this group creating action. This is really just not about being a talking club. This is about leveraging your expertise, your perspective, to make the nation safer.” Advisory Committee Member, Def Con Founder Jeff Moss, also offered his perspective on how best to engage the hacker community.

August 2021 OODA Loop Monthly Meeting Generates Actionable Insights Into A Chaotic World
OODA Network members are invited to participate in a monthly video call to discuss items of common interest to our membership. These highly collaborative sessions are always a great way for our members to meet and interact with each other while talking about topics like global risks, emerging technologies, cybersecurity, and current or future events impacting their organizations. We also use these sessions to help better focus our research and reporting on member needs.
The August monthly meeting focused on issues around Afghanistan and the many geopolitical and business related elements of these chaotic events. Members also discussed topics in the OODA C-Suite Report.
This post was generated from the OODA Network Member monthly meeting and access is restricted accordingly. If you are an OODA Subscriber, but not a member of our expert network, you will not be able to access this content.

Black Hat and Def Con 2021 – Observations and Trends
The Black Hat and Def Con cybersecurity events are the most highly anticipated of the year. Each event had an in-person component this year and OODA CEO Matt Devost provides his observations from each event.

Kim Zetter on Understanding the Realities of Cyberthreats and How Code Has a Story to Tell
This week’s OODAcast is with Kim Zetter, an incredibly well respected journalist who has been covering cybersecurity related issues for two decades. Matt Devost talks with Kim about a wide variety of cyber-related issues including a deep dive into Stuxnet and the implications for today’s security environment. Kim also shares details as to how she got into the field and how she developed relationships with the hacker community via her longstanding attendance at Def Con.

Scythe CEO Bryson Bort on Enhancing Security with Realistic Adversary Emulation
Bryson Bort is the Founder of SCYTHE, a start-up building a next generation attack emulation platform, and GRIMM, a boutique cybersecurity consultancy. He is widely known in the cybersecurity community for helping advance concepts of defense across multiple critical domains. He is the co-founder of the ICS Village, a non-profit advancing awareness of industrial control system security. Bryson is also a Senior Fellow for Cybersecurity and National Security at R Street and the National Security Institute and an Advisor to the Army Cyber Institute.
Voting Machine Systems New & Old Contain ‘Design’ Flaws
Security experts have been questioning the security of electronic voting for years. In August of this year, attendants of the popular DEF CON hacker conference proved once again that both older and newer voting systems are vulnerable to hacking. One of the most popular DEF CON events was the Voting

Def Con is the Most Valuable Security Conference of the Year. Here’s Why.
There are literally hundreds of cybersecurity conferences hosted around the world each year and as a result it can be difficult to determine which conferences provided the highest value in the domain.
While each of these events bring community value in their own unique way, Def Con is the most valuable event of the year for the community. Here’s why.

How a Presidential Commission Was Tracking Hackers in 1996
The President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection is often cited as one of the most important initiatives from the 1990s that advanced our cybersecurity programs in the U.S. The commission, which looked at cyber threats to critical infrastructure, created a lasting critical infrastructure framework that is still in use today.