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At Black Hat USA 2026, cybersecurity experts issued a stark warning: we may have just three years to shore up the invisible web of keys and certificates that keeps power grids, billing systems, and critical infrastructure secure. Ellen Boehm of Keyfactor explains why the clock is ticking—and what must happen now with post-quantum cryptography.

Do you really know what’s on your network? A lot of OT devices are white labeled, meaning they have a brand name but under the hood they’re made by someone else. Sean Tufts, Field CTO for Claroty, explains how his team is using AI to sift through all the available data and build a cyber physical library that starts to add specificity to remediation operations, and improve cyber physical security overall

At Black Hat USA 2025, Dan Berte, IoT Director at Bitdefender, revisits his talk last year about hacking solar panels in light of the blackout in Spain and Portugal. While the Iberian Peninsula blackout wasn’t an attack, it shows how sensitive these systems are when mixing old and new technologies, and how living off the land attacks might someday take advantage of that.

Ad fraud driven by both humans and AI agents require new signals beyond traditional bot-vs-human checks. Gavin Reid and Lindsay Kaye from HUMAN Security discuss how monetization includes ad and click fraud (peach pit), selling residential proxy access, and operating botnets for hire and preventing harm requires dismantling criminal infrastructure and collaboration across industry, since many infected devices cannot be practically cleansed by end users.

The EU’s new Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) sets higher security requirements but leaves many technical details undecided. This puts pressure on vendors of connected or software-based products to either redesign, retrofit, or withdraw from the market. According to Roland Marx, Senior Product Manager at Swissbit, the CRA’s three-year rollout is meant to give companies time to adapt while regulators finalize the specifics.

Quantum computers could break today’s encryption, leaving many OT systems—which often lack encryption entirely—at even greater risk. Dave Krauthamer, Field CTO at QuSecure, warns that nation-state attackers may target critical infrastructure like power, water, and food supplies first, making it urgent to adopt quantum-resistant cryptography across both IT and OT systems.

Operational technology (OT) systems are no longer limited to nation-states; criminal groups and hacktivists now actively target these systems, often driven by financial or ideological motives. Kurt Gaudette, Vice President of Intelligence and Services at Dragos, explains why these systems might not even be the primary targets.