Black Hat 2012 Kicks Off With Email Kerfuffle

More than 6,500 members of the IT security community, including vendor representatives, channel partners, academics, government employees, researchers and underground types, are gathering for a week's worth of discussions and exhibits around products, services, and a host of vulnerabilities that range from garden variety PC attacks to global cyber espionage.

The conference kicked off on Sunday with a security question of its own when approximately 7,500 people received an email to support password changes to their Black Hat accounts. The URL was not one that was immediately familiar, leading to extensive traffic on social media sites as attendees speculated about a likely phishing attempt, a social engineering attack, or potentially just an attempt at humor, given the backgrounds of the attendees. But a few hours later, Black Hat organizers issued an apologetic blog post indicating that the emails had been accidentally sent by a legitimate contractor.

"We have reviewed the server logs, we know the user, host, and have spoken with the volunteer who has emailed each of you this morning," the post read. "We are happy to report there are no signs of compromise. The email this morning was an abuse of functionality by a volunteer who has been spoken to. This feature has since been removed as a precautionary measure."

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