Several employees and student workers from UNLV Information Technology (IT) helped run this year’s Black Hat USA, an internationally recognized cybersecurity event series that provides cutting-edge research, developments, and trends in the world of information security. The event lasts over a six-day period, this year gaining over 20,000 attendees, in which our team helped to maintain.

Those from UNLV IT who attended the event were Maxine Franks, Victoria Kirchenberger, and Magdalene Tamakloe from the Information Security Office, along with Colton Gabertan and Alan Reisenauer from the Systems Engineering team.

They joined Black Hat as a part of this year’s Conference Associate Program, a volunteering program which gives those passionate about information security the opportunity to go behind the scenes and make sure the event runs smoothly. As conference associates, they were asked to work on a variety of tasks from controlling large crowds to setting up and breaking down the on-site network operations center.

Franks, information security analyst for UNLV IT, has been attending the Black Hat annual event for the past few years, even becoming the team lead for the conference associates back in 2019.

“I really enjoy getting the opportunity to network with other conference associates,” Franks said. “It’s really beneficial and interesting to hear about things such as where they receive training, scholarship opportunities they've taken advantage of, or even what apps are being used in higher education.”

Participants who complete the program also get access to certain perks, with the most popular one being a pass to DEF CON 32, the world's largest underground hacking conference.