---
title: "Night One at Black Hat 2026"
description: "Instead of my usual regulatory and legal commentary, I'll be posting daily content from Black Hat / BSides through Thursday. Arrival at LAS Waiting at baggage claim gave me my first taste of the crowd..."
url: https://kaynemcgladrey.com/blog/night-one-at-black-hat-2026/
date: 2026-08-03
modified: 2026-08-03
author: "Kayne"
image: https://kaynemcgladrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/black-hat-night-one.webp
categories: ["Blog"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# Night One at Black Hat 2026

Instead of my usual regulatory and legal commentary, I’ll be posting daily content from Black Hat / BSides through Thursday.

### Arrival at LAS

Waiting at baggage claim gave me my first taste of the crowd this year. I made friends with a DEF CON hall pass goon (volunteer staff, in case you’ve never been to DEF CON) who’d started her own company after concluding the job market had turned toxic. She decided she’d rather focus on risk and compliance instead of spending her days fighting endless security theater battles. Not a bad opening data point for the week. I can’t imagine the mental wellness or job search sessions will have many positive vibes this year.

By the time I reached my hotel off the Strip, I’d spotted teams arriving straight from Israel, visibly drained after thirty-hour flight itineraries due to multiple delays and re-routing. Many were visiting the United States for the first time. They’ll be jet-lagged until the middle of the week, so be nice to the folks you meet who’ve flown in from far away.

### The Accommodation Reality

My stay proved more practical than glamorous:

| Issue | Status |
| --- | --- |
| Desk lamp | Didn’t work |
| Body wash | Missing |
| Television | Hung at a jaunty angle |
| Coffee maker | Working |
| Refrigerator contents | Half a rotisserie chicken (left by someone) |
| Swimming pool | Warmer than my bathtub |

Compared to the polished Strip hotels that charge resort fees and then strip the rooms of anything useful, this actually felt like a win. I have a nice, full-size desk and air conditioning. Plus, with it 113 degrees in the shade, I tried the reverse polar bear plunge in the warm pool.

### What I Heard

**The marketing writer.** He’d flown out to understand cybersecurity before pitching services to clients. Most marketers end up churning out similar-sounding content about vanity metrics, but he wanted to learn the basics first. I told him to bring earplugs to Mandalay Bay. The noise floor alone there could drown out a fire alarm. His willingness to take the time and listen before selling struck me as rare enough to mention. I also appreciated his points about how I’m going to need to lean into marketing my upcoming book.

**The Information Systems Manager.** His company had just gone through bankruptcy, and their “solution” was deploying Claude into production with no guardrails and no acceptable use policy. “Cost savings”, he called it. His tone suggested he wasn’t convinced. We talked about discovery laws and liability exposure. The math doesn’t hold up when litigation due to poor AI outputs lands on your desk six months from now, but I had the sense he wasn’t planning on being there that long.

**The broader sentiment.** Private conversations kept returning to the same conclusion: AI’s a bubble. Several folks I met believe the resulting crash is going to be worse than the 2008 housing crisis; one attendee mentioned a similar event in China that I’d not heard of. The folks on the ground know we’re in a period of instability, but you won’t hear that message on the show floor.

### Why we come to Black Hat

Beyond the talks and vendors, it’s about community. I’m here to:

- Reconnect with old friends I haven’t seen since last year, including one who called me at 7 AM today to invite me to a party on Wednesday night
- Make new connections with people who understand why I take notes at midnight and then try to fix them in the morning
- Be a part of hallway conversations that matter more than keynote slides

### Wildfires

Staying off the Strip meant a quiet night. I’d texted a close friend in Spokane earlier to ask if she’d be here; she said that she wasn’t. On my way back from the last event of the night, my Lyft driver asked where I was from, and when I said “Washington,” he asked if I was worried about the wildfires in Spokane. I hadn’t known. So I immediately texted my friend, who said she’d had to evacuate, but that she and her family were okay, and that their house is still standing.

---

Night one ended with more questions than answers. The AI hype machine keeps spinning. People fly in exhausted from other continents. Hotels leave half-eaten food in refrigerators. Friendships survive distance and wildfires and everything else. If you can find meaning in that mess, you belong here.