Once again, the Blackhat conference in Las Vegas last week brought many interesting talks from industry specialists.

Getting straight to the point, here are three videos of what I believe were the best talks.

BadUSB – On Accessories that Turn Evil, by Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell

This talk introduces a new form of malware that operates from controller chips inside USB devices. USB sticks, as an example, can be reprogrammed to spoof various other device types in order to take control of a computer, exfiltrate data, or spy on the user.

Cybersecurity as Realpolitik by Dan Geer presented at Black Hat USA 2014

“Power exists to be used. Some wish for cyber safety, which they will not get. Others wish for cyber order, which they will not get. Some have the eye to discern cyber policies that are “the least worst thing;” may they fill the vacuum of wishful thinking.”

SATCOM Terminals: Hacking by Air, Sea, and Land, by Ruben Santamarta

Santamarta’s talk focuses on the satellite communications hardware which he says plays “a vital role in the global telecommunications systems.”

Santamarta has discovered that, of the devices used in satellite communications that he investigated, 100% were vulnerable, with the researcher uncovering “multiple backdoors, hardcoded credentials, undocumented and/or insecure protocols, or weak encryption algorithms.”