Play Beacon Run!

Come Beat the High Score at Booth #2939

From the creators of Cobalt Strike a game crafted specifically for Black Hat will be on display. Setting the high score on Beacon Run isn’t just for bragging rights, first place receives a prize. Come back to the booth periodically to ensure challengers haven’t overtaken your rank to secure your swag.

Fortra offers trainings created by Zero-Point Security, a CREST-approved training provider. These trainings range from an entry level course on red team operations to offensive tradecraft for important Cobalt Strike tools.

The Zero-Point Security portfolio will be on full display at Black Hat Vegas 2026 for organizations to identify gaps in their security teams and upskill from within.

Grounded in real-world experience across complex enterprise environments, this session cuts through theory to focus on what works in practice. The speakers will share hard-earned lessons from engagements: techniques that continue to succeed despite modern defenses, assumptions that are consistently proven wrong, and the difficulties they face in real-world operations. The session explores how security professionals are (and aren’t) using AI across the red team lifecycle. The speakers will share where automation meaningfully improves efficiency, where human creativity still dominates, and how defenders are adapting just as quickly.

In this candid, no-slides discussion, red teamers from Fortra’s Outflank and Mandiant, a part of Google Cloud, compare notes from the front lines, unpacking how AI is actually influencing offensive operations today—and where it falls short.

Location: Main Stage Date: Wednesday, August 5th Time: 3:30pm Presenter: Kyle Avery

AI is changing how red teams work, and it’s an open question how far that goes. On the one hand, there is a future where we let an AI loose with a prompt like, ‘hack this environment like APT29.’ On the other, red teaming often involves access into core production systems where there is no margin for error. How do you capture the benefits of AI without it causing unintended damage?

In this talk, veteran red teamer Pieter Ceelen maps the risks and the open questions, and shares where he’s landed on balancing autonomy against control, whether you’re the operator running the engagement or the CISO who has to sign off on it. He’ll close with a preview of how this has begun to take shape in Cobalt Strike, demonstrating how AI can take real action on an engagement in a structure that keeps operators in command.

Location: Pulse Stage Date: Wednesday, August 5th Time: 2:30pm Presenter: Pieter Ceelen