Black Hat Key Takeaways

Back to Basics in a High-Pressure Security World

This year’s Black Hat conference reminded us that while innovation continues to surge, especially around AI, the fundamentals of cybersecurity remain as critical as ever. From AI governance to insider threats, here are our top three takeaways from our team.

1. What’s Old is New: The Fundamentals Still Matter

Despite the hype around emerging threats, speakers at Black Hat 2025 emphasized the ongoing relevance of traditional hacking methods. From overlooked regex errors to basic authentication flaws, this year’s sessions served as a powerful reminder that foundational security practices are important. Cybersecurity leaders must master core principles to reduce risk and build resilience against both legacy and emerging threats.

• Incident Response & Readiness
  A recurring theme was the importance of having an up-to-date incident response playbook. More importantly, one that’s actually been tested. Many organizations still lack basic preparedness, and tabletop exercises were highlighted as a vital tool to ensure readiness and ensure teams are prepared if and/or when a breach occurs.
• Identity & Access Management
  Cyata uncovered two critical zero-day vulnerabilities in HashiCorp Vault. One allowed brute-force login attempts by altering letter casing in usernames. The other let attackers bypass SSO by adding a space before the username. These flaws highlight the importance of strong identity and access management in defending against modern threats. Foundational practices such as input validation and thorough QA processes, including fuzz testing, can help prevent vulnerabilities from reaching production.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
  Breaking down silos across teams was another major theme. Effective incident response and threat management require shared visibility and unified messaging across departments and teams. The most resilient organizations will infuse security into their culture and make it a priority for everyone from SOC analysts to marketing.
• Alignment to Business Strategy
  Security teams are increasingly being asked to prioritize based on business impact. With smaller teams and limited resources, focusing on the top five risks aligned to business goals is becoming a strategic imperative.

2. AI Governance: Beyond the Buzzwords

I governance also emerged as a critical theme, with vendors split between buzzword usage and meaningful implementation. The need for clear frameworks to guide responsible, ethical AI use was evident, especially as both attackers and defenders increasingly leverage AI.

A practical way to start your AI governance journey is by conducting an AI risk assessment to identify where AI is currently used across your organization. From there, establishing a cross-functional governance committee can help develop and enforce policies on ethical use, data privacy, and model transparency.

This approach aligns with the message in our latest blog, “Agentic AI & The Urgency Trap: Why Explainability and Governance Must Come First.” Often, in our rush to deploy agentic AI systems, we risk overlooking foundational safeguards like governance, explainability, and auditability. These elements are foundational for building systems that are safe, ethical, and accountable.

3. Insider Risk & Threat Management

Another standout theme at Black Hat 2025 was the rising concern around insider threats. These risks are particularly damaging because they come from individuals who already have legitimate access to sensitive systems and data. A recent example is Tesla, where former employees leaked confidential information, resulting in serious reputational and operational consequences.

To address this challenge, organizations should implement a robust Privileged Access Management (PAM) strategy. A modern PAM solution enforces least-privilege access based on role and necessity, while integrating behavioral analytics and continuous monitoring to detect early signs of misuse. It brings together people, processes, and technology under a unified policy framework, enabling secure storage, management, and isolation of credentials for both human and non-human identities. PAM also supports session monitoring, automated access controls, and audit capabilities, helping organizations reduce risk at scale and maintain operational integrity.

Black Hat 2025 was a powerful reminder that cybersecurity isn’t just about chasing the next big thing; it’s about mastering the basics. As threats evolve, so must our commitment to foundational practices, cross-functional collaboration, and strategic alignment.

If you want to learn more about mastering the fundamentals for cybersecurity success,
check out our video blog.