Hacker Summer Camp: three shows, one hot week
This week Las Vegas hosts "Hacker Summer Camp – not one, but three conferences" — BSides Las Vegas (August 3–5), Black Hat (August 1–6) and DEF CON (August 6–9) — where attendees will trade notes on agentic artificial intelligence, vendor demos, and the practicalities of defending live networks under triple‑digit August heat. The gatherings span a spectrum from grassroots community rooms to the largest corporate expo floor in infosec, and together they foreground a single theme: how autonomous agents will change both offense and defense.
BSides Las Vegas: hands‑on, community first
BSides, running August 3–5, is described as the smallest and most relaxed of the three events and is pitched as a good starter con for newcomers to Hacker Summer Camp. Talks and training skew hands‑on and toward practitioners rather than vendor sales pitches. The conference includes a Hire Ground career track focused on job hunting, interviewing, career‑building, networking and "using AI to remain relevant as a security professional," offering practical pathways for individuals navigating the changing skills landscape.
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Talk to us →Black Hat: federal voices, AI keynotes, and vendor promises
Black Hat (August 1–6) is the largest and most corporate event at the camp, with a massive expo floor, two official keynotes, 11 mainstage presentations, and a set of specialized summits covering healthcare, financial threats, and AI. Training days run through Tuesday, with the main conference on Wednesday and Thursday; the opening session on Tuesday — billed as "Cyber Power in the Age of AI" — should be treated as a keynote.
After the FBI, NSA and CISA all cancelled their RSAC appearances earlier this year, federal officials will appear in force at Black Hat. The opening session features White House National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross discussing the president's cyber and AI strategy, joined by CISA acting director Nick Anderson, FBI cyber division assistant director Brett Leatherman, and assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy Katherine Sutton. Wednesday and Thursday keynotes will address AI‑powered vulnerability research and discovery, exploit generation, and how defenders can evolve to keep pace.
Agentic AI onstage and on the expo floor
Agentic AI is the conversation's substantive and commercial centerpiece. Sessions and panels will debate how to govern and secure agents "so they don't go rogue and hack into other organizations' servers" — a framing that name‑checks OpenAI and Anthropic in the discussion — and whether lawmakers should regulate models, including open‑weight and Chinese large language models. At the same time, vendors on Black Hat are expected to demonstrate agents as cure‑alls: claims that new agentic tools will find and defend against threats "at machine speed" will be a major theme on the expo floor and in vendor presentations.
DEF CON, the Franklin project, and the water utilities effort
DEF CON (August 6–9) adopts this year's theme of "agency," framed as self‑determination, and will host nearly 30 Villages on topics from AI to car hacking and lockpicking. Jake Braun — a creator of DEF CON's original Voting Machine Hacking Village in 2017 and the Executive Director of DEF CON Franklin — places "agency" in the context of human rights, urging hackers and civil‑society actors to identify and build technologies that preserve human rights.
Braun will also update attendees on the Franklin project, launched at DEF CON in 2024, which enlists hackers to secure critical infrastructure. The project has mobilized "hundreds of volunteers" to assist 21 different water utilities across seven states, a contribution the source notes as timely given an increase in attacks against US water facilities.
What this means for technologists, policymakers, and water utilities
- Technologists and security teams: Expect hands‑on training at BSides and highly publicized demos at Black Hat that emphasize agentic detection and response. Workshops and mainstage keynotes will highlight AI‑driven vulnerability research and exploit generation, pressing defenders to reassess tooling and skills.
- Policymakers and regulators: The presence of senior federal cyber officials at Black Hat — and the planned discussions about regulating open‑weight and foreign models — signals an active policy conversation this week about the proper regulatory role for lawmakers and agencies.
- Water utilities and critical infrastructure operators: The Franklin project's work with 21 water utilities in seven states underscores a growing pathway for volunteer hacker engagement in infrastructure security, a timely development as attacks against US water facilities increase.
Hacker Summer Camp this year stitches together three distinct experiences — community training, federal policy debate, and playful but serious exploratory hacking — around one technical pivot: agents. Whether agents end up being a powerful defensive multiplier, a new vector for autonomous exploitation, or both will be debated on stages, in Villages, and at booth demos over the coming days. Attendees will contend not only with rival technical visions but also with literal triple‑digit heat as the week closes at DEF CON's agencies of self‑determination.
Original story: https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/08/04/this_one_time_at_hacker_summer_camp/5282999
