Day 1 of BlueHat India brought together a passionate, global community of security professionals, from seasoned defenders to up-and-coming researchers, who came to learn, share, and connect.
We kicked off with keynotes from Tom Gallagher (
@secbughunter) and David "DWIZZZLE" Weston (@dwizzzleMSFT) who discussed everything from Zero Day Quest to the risks of on-device AI, followed by our sessions:
• George Hughey (
@ecthr0s) discussed how Microsoft finds variant vulnerabilities using competition research
• Ali Abdollahi walked through red teaming mobile networks with lessons from real-world telecom breaches
• Vaibhav Deshmukh & Sudhir Devkar revealed the inner workings of ransomware group Black Basta through leaked operational chats
• Sathwik Ram Prakki (
@PrakkiSathwik) discussed APT SideCopy’s evolution and targeting shifts
• Joshua Bahirvani & Shaleen Dev P.K. showed how attackers abuse dormant cloud identities in stealthy campaigns
• Anurag Bohra & Anant Pulgam shared new techniques used by the XCSSET macOS malware
• Thirumalai Natarajan (
@th1rum) discussed threats against virtual infrastructure and hypervisors
Beyond the main stage, attendees explored hands-on learning across six Villages:
• AI in Security Village: Attendees tested their skills in AI-themed CTFs and explored how AI is reshaping the security landscape
• Garage Village: From soldering workshops to live 3D printing, curious makers got hands-on with hardware prototyping
• Forensics Village: Participants dove into digital forensics challenges, quizzes, and capture-the-flag scenarios
• MSRC Village: Bug hunting, insecure code spotting, and deep dives into Microsoft’s bounty programs kept researchers engaged
• AppSec Village: Secure coding exercises, quizzes, and reverse engineering challenges gave developers a chance to sharpen their skills
• Arena: Thought-provoking fireside chats sparked discussion on Diversity & Inclusion and what quantum computing means for the future of security
To everyone who presented, asked questions, sparked hallway conversations, and shared on social—thank you. This is what the BlueHat community is all about.
Day 2 sessions start soon!
#BlueHatIndia