Black Hat and DEF CON are AI conferences now, too

Our cybersecurity editor Jessica Lyons (theregister.com/author/jessica-lyons) spent a week in Las Vegas for Black Hat and DEF CON last week, and there was only one thing on everyone's mind: AI agents and their growing threat to cybersecurity defenders.

As Jess wrote this week, pretty much every discussion she had centered around AI and its potential effects (theregister.com/security/2026/08/07/asimov-was…) on critical infrastructure (theregister.com/security/2026/08/14/autonomous…), with multiple current and former government leaders expressing worry over recent events (theregister.com/security/2026/08/07/water-syst…) and what they mean for the future of infosec.

Join Jess and host Brandon Vigliarolo (theregister.com/author/brandon-vigliarolo) for this week's episode of The Kettle, where they break down the hacker summer camp (theregister.com/security/2026/08/04/this-one-t…) scuttlebutt and what the security world is doing to protect critical infrastructure from the emerging AI threat.