Blackhat sold to CMP

[renderman]

Holy shit on a stick...

http://www.americanventuremagazine.c...php?newsid=525

MANHASSET, N.Y./PRNewswire/ -- CMP Media, a marketing solutions company serving the technology, healthcare and entertainment markets, announced today that it has acquired Black Hat Inc., a producer of information security conferences and training that includes Black Hat Briefings and Conferences.

Jeff Moss, founder and owner, will continue to run Black Hat and will join CMP Media as Director of Black Hat. Combining CMP's current portfolio of Computer Security Institute (CSI), Secure Enterprise magazine and the Security Pipeline website with Black Hat, will position CMP Media as the strongest platform in the computer security media market.


"Black Hat has been one of the most successful conferences in computer security, with incredible growth over the past five years," said Chris Keating, vice president of CMP's security media group. "Its approach to security, focusing on attacks and countermeasures, complements CSI's methodology of a broader approach to computer security."

Black Hat was launched in 1997 by Jeff Moss to provide advanced education to security professionals within global corporations and federal agencies. Moss' mission was to mix the best minds of the computer underground with the leading security professionals. The result was a unique conference known for providing new and exclusive research from the top technologists in the world. Black Hat continued to grow and now offers briefings as well as customized training and consulting services to provide unmatched knowledge about upcoming security trends to three continents.


"This move will enable Black Hat to take advantage of growth opportunities we couldn't pursue as a small company, such as international expansion, while enabling me to keep doing what I love the most -- working with speakers and building the conference programs," Jeff Moss added.

Black Hat and CSI will remain separate entities within CMP; both will report to Chris Keating. Black Hat's flagship conference, Black Hat USA, will take place in Las Vegas July 2006. Black Hat also produces Black Hat Europe and Black Hat Asia. CMP's flagship event -- CSI's 32nd Annual Conference is currently taking place November 14-16 in Washington, D.C. and its CSI NetSec
'06 will be held June 12-14, 2006 in Scottsdale, AZ.

"Security, vulnerabilities and disasters are a daily concern for IT
professionals at organizations around the globe. The security industry accounts for $46 billion in 2005 according to Forrester," noted CMP Media president and CEO, Steve Weitzner. "CMP's goal is to meet the needs of our customers and audiences. Black Hat deepens our security audience reach and reinforces our commitment to offering the strongest platform in the computer
security media market."

[allentrace]

Very smart, obviously CMP is trying to branch out into the computer market and who better to buy to subsidize their existing portfolio. On the bright side this sale will probably eliminate the need for having a sponsor for Defcon.

[stringslayer]

In my experience, corporate overhead leads to corporate restrictions.
I would hate to see this happen to Blackhat and Defcon.
I doubt Jeff Moss would let this happen, but money is the root of all evil

[allentrace]

but money is the root of all evil

Only poor people say that. Or those who also like to blame Big Tobacco. In layman's term people often like to blame something other than themselves for an evil or wrong when the choice to do right or wrong (subjective I know) is really in their own hands.

[stringslayer]

Only poor people say that. Or those who also like to blame Big Tobacco. In layman's term people often like to blame something other than themselves for an evil or wrong when the choice to do right or wrong (subjective I know) is really in their own hands.

Im only suggesting that people should use critical thinking instead of jumping right on the Jeff Moss ass-kissing bandwagon that you appear to be driving.
Dont misunderstand, I have a lot of respect for Jeff Moss. We all owe him a lot.
As for big tobacco and poor people, I think you are in left field foul territory. :-)

[allentrace]

Im only suggesting that people should use critical thinking instead of jumping right on the Jeff Moss ass-kissing bandwagon that you appear to be driving.
Dont misunderstand, I have a lot of respect for Jeff Moss. We all owe him a lot.
As for big tobacco and poor people, I think you are in left field foul territory. :-)

My arguement had nothing to do with Jeff Moss instead I chose to take point with your concept of money being the root of all evil. I think people are the root of all evil not an object. And as for the ass kissing I do not know the man nor would I kiss his ass if I did.

[octalpus]

Just to end this train of thought here, one simple thing to point out - Blackhat != Defcon. They are completely seperate entities and this will not have any effect on our debauchery... er... information sharing and community bonding.

[pr0zac0x2a]

Just to end this train of thought here, one simple thing to point out - Blackhat != Defcon. They are completely seperate entities and this will not have any effect on our debauchery... er... information sharing and community bonding.

The answer to the question I was questioning. Good news and happy feelings returning.

-zac

[Grond]

Just to end this train of thought here, one simple thing to point out - Blackhat != Defcon. They are completely seperate entities and this will not have any effect on our debauchery... er... information sharing and community bonding.

They are not completely separate...they both have a common origin...but hopefully this will add the advantage of having CMP's army of corporate lawyers to protect BH/DC from future meddling from Cisco, ISS, or any other corporate bully.

[TheCotMan]

hopefully this will add the advantage of having CMP's army of corporate lawyers to protect BH/DC from future meddling from Cisco, ISS, or any other corporate bully.

Having a corporation and legal backing does not guarantee legal support to defend decisions.

Consider google. There was an issue with "gmail" as a name used by a german company, and then, there was issue with Apple when google provided a different interface. I seem to recall that google backed down in both cases, and continues to make concessions to laws in foreign countries instead of doing battle.

"Choose your battles wisely" seems to be at work, and legal battles are often costly.

[noid]

Actually they are seperate, other than DT being the captain of both ships. As far as concerns go about corporations and such, Blackhat from the beginning was always corporate. From its initial support by Secure Computing to its current range of sponsors, its always been a corporate thing. So in its current incarnation I dont see BH being any different next year than it is this year, other than theres now a big company behind DT that can handle all the tedium that has previously mired him down.

Defcon isnt affected by this. DT has always been pretty rabid about making sure that Defcon stays seperate from BH, and those of us that have remained loyal to him over the years remain so because he has kept that promise.

Personally I'm happy for him. He made some cash (although I cant seem to find any facts to back up the number posted in the /. article), and now gets to focus on building the conference out and making sure the content is where it needs to be at. As an added bonus when/if shit like CiscoGate occurs, theres now a nice army of lawyers to go off and deal with things.

[The Dark Tangent]

Bh / Dc

Yeah, it took a lot of time to make sure everyone understood that not only are they separate shows, but that DEF CON will never be for sale. I either run it with my friends and supporters, or I spike it in the ground.

In one form or another Black Hat has been approached for the last four years by prospective buyers. The difference with CMP is that they already ran a security show, CSI, and know what they were getting into with a conference. As a publisher they know about the problems of getting sued for what they print and what their writers say. It doesn't scare them. Finally the team I will be with for BH seems very cool, all long term industry people. I have detected no ego in anyone yet, just a sort of desire to run a good business.

On the plus side the resources look good, and the desire to grow to other markets is appealing. Black Hat Press? Black Hat newsletter? Mailing Lists? More training? Not sure, but it is all possible now with a big brother helping out. I wanted to focus more on content, and selling was about the only way I figured this was possible without shrinking the business.

Over the next bunch of months I'm going to de-tangle DEF CON from Black Hat. We shared resources like network and servers, but now I've got to separate them. I've got new office space for DEF CON on the way, new bandwidth and servers, etc. So there might be some short term disruptions as this happens, but nothing scary. Just time to build new boxes and move services. Once the move is done I'll post some pictures of DEF CON World Domination Headquarters. It's never had it's own home.. it's always been the free loader on Black Hat!

As far as DEF CON goes I see the biggest problem being how to use the new hotel space. Where does the speaking go, the contests, etc. I want to have that plotted out in the next month, then we open the CFP and start planning up a storm.

This is sort of a long answer to a simple question, but I thought you should know some of the back story.

DT

[klepto]

Don't some of the speakers from black hat las vegas also speak at defcon? What is going to happen?

[octalpus]

Don't some of the speakers from black hat las vegas also speak at defcon? What is going to happen?

Yes, many of them speak at both. They also speak at Toorcon, Shmoocon, Layer One, and many other unrelated conventions. I fail to see how this will affect any of that. I suspect they'll still be just as eager to speak at both, given the advantage of proximity.

[TheCotMan]

One worry I had, was one of BH disallowing certain BH speakers from speaking at DC for reasons of corporate profit through "exclusive contracts and financial incentives." However, this quote caused me to worry about this issue much less:

(from article:)
[This change in ownership will help by ... ] "enabling me to keep doing what I love the most -- working with speakers and building the conference programs"

If DT will still coordinate speakers for both, then the chance for exclusive corporate presentation enforcement to be BH-only seems to me to be a much smaller risk.

Also, this helps too:

the team I will be with for BH seems very cool, all long term industry people.

One decision I am only a little worried about has to do with corporate decisions on profit, in having the BH registration include payment for DefCon passes. Perhaps, BH may move to offering itemized options during registration, that would no longer make attendece to DefCon "free" (part of the base BH package) but an itemized option, that can be selected that will increase the cost of BH. (My worry.)

From what I understand, the average BH attendee is better educated/experienced than the average DefCon attendee. DefCon benefits from having BH people also visit DefCon.

Not allowing BH attendees to choose to have a lower cost by deselecting DC as an option is a good idea to keep as-is.

If for some reason, it was to be changed to be an additional BH fee that was selectable at registration, then the charge could be less than what most DefCon people pay for DefCon because IMO, DefCon benefits when BH people also attend DefCon.