Error Code

At Black Hat USA 2025, Dan Berte, IoT Director at BitDefender, revisits his talk last year about hacking solar panels in light of the blackout in Spain and Portugal. While the Iberian Peninsula blackout wasn’t an attack, it shows how sensitive these systems are when mixing old and new technologies, and how living off the land attacks might someday take advantage of that.

At Black Hat USA 2025, Noam Moshe from Claroty’s Team 82 revealed several vulnerabilities in Axis Communications’ IP camera systems, including a deserialization flaw that could let attackers run remote code. The team worked with Axis to patch the issues. Moshe says that this case highlights the broader security risks still common in the billions of common IoT devices in the world today.

Ad fraud driven by both humans and AI agents require new signals beyond traditional bot-vs-human checks. Gavin Reid and Lindsay Kaye from HUMAN Security discuss how monetization includes ad and click fraud (peach pit), selling residential proxy access, and operating botnets for hire and preventing harm requires dismantling criminal infrastructure and collaboration across industry, since many infected devices cannot be practically cleansed by end users.

Certification exams increasingly reflect the IT OT convergence, acknowledging that many protections apply across both domains requiring holistic security approaches rather than siloed solutions. John France, CISO at ISC2, explains that as threats grow more complex, certifications, continuous learning, and diverse skills are essential to building a resilient global workforce.

The EU’s new Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) sets higher security requirements but leaves many technical details undecided. This puts pressure on vendors of connected or software-based products to either redesign, retrofit, or withdraw from the market. According to Roland Marx, Senior Product Manager at Swissbit, the CRA’s three-year rollout is meant to give companies time to adapt while regulators finalize the specifics.

Healthcare organizations are prone to the same weaknesses that any other office or manufacturing site may have. Sonu Shankar, Chief Product Officer at Phosphorus Cybersecurity, explains how the devices you might not suspect might be the ones to bring down your organization if they’re not secured. That includes the printer used to print patient wristbands.

Quantum computers could break today’s encryption, leaving many OT systems—which often lack encryption entirely—at even greater risk. Dave Krauthamer, Field CTO at QuSecure, warns that nation-state attackers may target critical infrastructure like power, water, and food supplies first, making it urgent to adopt quantum-resistant cryptography across both IT and OT systems.

This is a story where one maritime company found multiple vendors maintaining unrestricted VPN access to systems across a cruise vessel, exposing safety-critical functions to potential compromise. Bill Moore, CEO of Xona Systems, returns to Error Code to talk about how that company and others, such as data center operators, are recognizing their latent multiple-vendor OT exposure and learning how to address it today.

Operational technology (OT) systems are no longer limited to nation-states; criminal groups and hacktivists now actively target these systems, often driven by financial or ideological motives. Kurt Gaudette, Vice President of Intelligence and Services at Dragos, explains why these systems might not even be the primary targets.

Many organizations spend valuable security resources fixing vulnerabilities in code that never actually runs—an inefficient and often unnecessary effort. Jeff Williams, CTO and founder at Contrast Security, says that 62% of open source libraries included in software are never even loaded into memory, let alone executed. This means only 38% of libraries are typically active and worth prioritizing.

Critical Infrastructure software lacks the strict liability standards found in industries like automotive manufacturing, leading to minimal accountability for insecure products when they get exploited. Alex Santos, CEO of Fortress Information Security, explains how they’re typically hired by buyers of ICS equipment—such as utilities—to assess and mitigate supply chain risks, including working with OEMs to improve security.

While cybersecurity threats targeting critical infrastructure, particularly focusing on the vulnerabilities of operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS).mostly originate on the business or IT side, there’s increasing concern about attacks crossing into OT, which could result in catastrophic consequences, especially in centralized systems like utilities. Michael Welch, managing director from MorganFranklin Cyber, discusses how Volt Typhoon and other attacks are living off the land, and lying in wait.

This is a story about a Chief Hacking Officer who draws on his expertise in physical and virtual security assessments—along with some intuitive AI-driven coding—to safeguard Operational Technology. Colin Murphy of Frenos and Mitnick Security talks about how some of his early assessment work with Kevin Mitnick is helping him with OT security today.

ROI is always a tricky subject in cybersecurity. If you’re paying millions of dollars in securing your OT networks, you’d want to be able to show that it was worth it. Andrew Hural of UnderDefense talks about the need for continuous vigilance, risk management, and proactive defense, acknowledging both the human and technological elements in cybersecurity and how just because something didn’t happen doesn’t mean that it didn’t.

Zero Trust is a security model based on default-deny policies and fine-grained access control governed by identity, authentication, and contextual signals. For RSAC 2025, John Kindervag, Chief Evangelist of Illumio and the creator of Zero Trust, talks about introducing a "protect surface" into legacy OT systems —isolating critical data, applications, assets, or services into secure zones for targeted Zero Trust implementation.

Solar power systems are rapidly becoming essential elements of power grids throughout the world, especially in the US and EU. However, cybersecurity for these systems is often an afterthought, creating a growing risk to grid stability and availability. Daniel de Santos, Head of Research at ForeScout, talks about his recent research into vulnerabilities associated with solar panel investors, how they might affect the power grid or the end-user, and what we can do about it.

Gone are the days when you could repair your own car. Even ICE cars have more electronics than ever before. Alexander Pick is an independent hardware hacker specializing in automotive systems. He says if you start off small, like looking at ECUs, there’s a lot of great research yet to be done by both hobbyists and professionals alike.

It’s becoming easier for criminals to use counterfeit or altered chips in common office products, such as printer toner cartridges, with the aim of espionage or simple financial gain. Tony Moor, Senior Director Of Silicon Lab Services For IOActive, explains how the hacking embedded silicon within common objects in our day to day lives is becoming more common, and what the consequences of this lack of security might mean.

Embedded devices need basic security measures like multi-factor authentication and unique credentials to reduce vulnerabilities and protect against cyber threats. Mauritz Botha, co-founder and CTO of XiO Inc., explains that cloud-based SCADA can update old systems and provide the visibility that’s currently missing.

As industrial enterprises lurch toward digital transformation and Industry 4.0, a new report looks at the security OT systems and finds it wanting. Grant Geyer, the Chief Strategy Officer for Claroty, talks about the findings from over one million devices in the field today, and what industries must do now to secure them.