It’s difficult to imagine a conference as big as Black Hat without the stunt hacking that generally comes with such a high-profile security event. Whether it be chatter about phishing attempts on the Trump administration, hijacking the hotel’s wireless connection, or compromising the automated teller machine in the lobby — the antics of Black Hat’s hacker contingent are hard to separate from the security innovations that debut to the world there.
In his keynote address, Facebook CSO, Alex Stamos, called for change — prompting the great minds before him to champion real-world security problems — and to leave behind uninspired stunt hacks and zero days. An appeal that resonated through the show, and aligned seamlessly with the values that underpin FunCaptcha.
The business hall was dressed in value; elaborate booths matched only by their compelling salespeople. Accordingly, there was much commentary from attendees on discerning the value of the sale, versus the value of the product. We had the same discussion before embarking on the road to Black Hat 2017, and ultimately we made the choice to transform a sales pitch into a bespoke workshop delivered by key talent from our product team. In fact, there wasn’t a single salesperson at our booth, and much to the delight of those who stopped by — no technical question went unanswered. Although, a lot of our guests left questioning the CAPTCHAs that are meant to secure the most important parts of their website.
The road to Black Hat 2017 was short for FunCaptcha. 16-days-short, actually. We were offered a last-minute opportunity, and I just couldn’t pass up sharing the incredible work my team has done over the last 4 years. The kind of work Alex Stamos called for in his keynote — a solution to a real-world security problem. And with no online problem larger in scale than automated abuse, FunCaptcha demonstrated itself to be a standout product in front of the world’s leading InfoSec decision-makers.
Our unique Aussie swag — like Tim Tams and Vegemite — certainly created buzz across the business hall, but it was the compelling truth behind our product that resonated most with attendees. We listened to passionate accounts from those who had suffered at the hands of reCAPTCHA, and heard defeat from those resigned to the belief that CAPTCHA simply doesn’t work. Narratives that have permeated the CAPTCHA discourse since its inception. We joined these conversations first with the ‘why’ — why hasn’t CAPTCHA worked? We unpacked 20 years of CAPTCHA to highlight the security flaws that have failed to stop bots, and carelessly blocked humans. With this insight, we then proved the ‘how’ — how we avoided these flaws and built an elegant solution to a very difficult problem. A problem that continues to evolve and isn’t going away — just as FunCaptcha remains the world’s only managed CAPTCHA service that responds to threats within a guaranteed automation SLA.
For us, that’s what made Black Hat a knockout for FunCaptcha.
All product, no sales.
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