Black Hat Announces Maria Markstedter, Jen Easterly, Viktor Zhora, and Kemba Walden As Keynote Speakers for Black Hat USA 2023

Maria Markstedter is the Founder of Azeria Labs, where she runs a popular blog that teaches the community about Arm, from the instruction set to reverse engineering and exploit development. Markstedter will give her talk, “Guardians of the AI Era: Navigating the Cybersecurity Landscape of Tomorrow,” on Wednesday, August 9 at 9:00 AM. This talk will cover challenges AI brings to the cybersecurity industry and how cybersecurity professionals can evolve with the AI revolution and use it to their advantage.She has worked in various cybersecurity sectors, including threat intelligence, pentesting, and reverse engineering, and previously served as the Chief Product Officer of Corellium, an Arm virtualization startup. 

Jen Easterly is the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), where she was nominated by President Biden in April 2021, and unanimously confirmed by the Senate in July 2021. As Director, Easterly leads CISA’s efforts to understand, manage, and reduce risk to the cyber and physical infrastructure Americans rely on every day. In 2021, Easterly presented her Keynote, "Hacking the Cybersecurity Puzzle," at Black Hat USA, covering ways that hackers, the government, and private sector could work together to confront cyber threats. For Black Hat USA 2023, Easterly will present her talk with Viktor Zhora. Their talk will feature a fireside chat format and take place on Wednesday, August 9 at 4:20 PM.

Viktor Zhora is the Deputy Chairman of the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine on Digital Development, Digital Transformations, and Digitalization. Since January 2021, Zhora has been responsible for cybersecurity in the Ukrainian digital infrastructure, supervising digital transformation and cybersecurity projects, CERT-UA, and the State Cyber Protection Center. He is a graduate of both the Institute of Physics and Technology of the National Technical University of Ukraine and the Institute of Software Systems of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, as well as an author of numerous scientific publications on information security.

Kemba Walden is the Acting National Cyber Director in the Office of the National Cyber Director. Walden served as the inaugural Principal Deputy National Cyber Director for eight months, during which she co-led the organization, overseeing the development and growth of the office. During her tenure, the Office of the National Cyber Director drafted the National Cybersecurity Strategy, managed implementation of Executive Order 14028 – Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, and spearheaded the first ever National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy. Her talk will be presented on Thursday, August 10 at 9:00 AM.