At hacker summit, a new focus on preventing brazen attacks

At hacker summit, a new focus on preventing brazen attacks
In this photo taken Friday, June 8, 2012 Alex Stamos CTO of Artemis Internet, an NCC Group Company, poses by a domain name poster at their offices in San Francisco. Some 2,000 proposals have been submitted as part of the largest expansion of the Internet address system since its creation in the 1980s. These suffixes would rival ".com" and about 250 others now in use. The organization behind it, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, will announce a full list and other details in London on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

Against a backdrop of cyberattacks that have grown into full-fledged sabotage, Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos is bringing a new message to hackers and security experts at the Black Hat conference.


In short: it's time for hackers once known for relatively harmless mischief to shoulder responsibility for helping detect and prevent major attacks.

The Black Hat security gathering, starting Wednesday in Las Vegas, follows a series of attacks and data breaches that have paralyzed hospitals, disrupted commerce, caused blackouts and interfered with national elections.

Stamos, a keynote speaker, is planning to call for more emphasis on defense—and basic digital hygiene—over the thrilling hunt for undiscovered vulnerabilities.

Stamos joined Facebook from Yahoo, which last year disclosed breaches of more than a billion user accounts .

Explore further: Yahoo's Stamos to become Facebook's chief security officer