The tinkerers, the warriors: Why quiet work matters in cyber

Not every cybersecurity conference is made for everyone in cyber. But the Black Hat community really does include every diverse practitioner from across the industry – because everyone has a role to play in creating a secure future. 

When we spoke to Kirsten Davies (3x Global CISO, Founder and CEO of the Institute for Cyber Civics) on the ground at Black Hat MEA 2024, she said:

“Black Hat actually brings the practitioners together, not just the CISOs. We always have these great forums for executives and the leadership layer…but Black Hat is where all the practitioners come together.”

She laughed, adding, “I walk around with my phone off because I know there are hackers everywhere.” 

“But really, it’s wonderful to have a place that’s specifically for the tinkerers, for the people with fingers on keyboards, where we can actually learn from each other and have great conversations together.” 

Black Hat MEA welcomes the tinkerers 

Some of the best ethical hackers – the ones who’ve made the biggest difference in the world – started out in their bedrooms, with homemade rigs and unstoppable curiosity. So Kirsten’s point is really important to us – we want to welcome the tinkerers, the quiet warriors doing the work and growing their skills, because cybersecurity is an industry that lives on the curiosity and effort that practitioners put in. 

Investments are important. High-level business partnerships; cross-border collaborations between government agencies and major organisations; networking between CISOs and business executives; all of this is important. But the quiet work isn’t any less important than all of that; because the field of cybersecurity needs the discoveries and determination and raw ambition of the people who don’t get to attend industry leadership events. 

Grassroots, at-home hacker energy is still critical for the future of security 

AI risk and defence is a huge topic in cybersecurity conversations. Many of those conversations focus on the big picture (or a big-ish) picture, but it’s rare to hear someone emphasise the value of smaller, quieter work to combat AI threats. 

Allan Alford (CEO at Alford and Adams Consulting) happens to be President of The Security Tinkerers, an organisation of CISOs, CTOs, cybersecurity CEOs and more, who are working together to drive collaboration and support in the industry. At BHMEA24, we asked him for one piece of advice he’d give to anyone working in cybersecurity right now, and he said: 

“Learn AI. And I don’t use mean learn AI from a user perspective, I mean go buy some hardware, put together an AI rig at home, load up the models, download them, play with them, learn how LLM works, learn how Generative AI works, and then start putting on your evil hat like we always do in cybersecurity.” 

“Start thinking bad even as you’re doing good, and start figuring out ways that AI can benefit the bad guys. Because it’s coming, and we need to be ready for it.” 

You see; the most experienced cybersecurity professionals understand the value of sitting down and figuring things out, piece by piece. They know why tinkerers tinker. Because it’s the people doing that quiet work who discover tiny, detailed possibilities that could help us protect against future threats at scale. 

And that’s why BHMEA isn’t just a leadership conference 

We get CISOs and CTOs in the room. We get business leaders and investors from across industries in the room, and government officials, policymakers. But we never just want a room full of business leaders at Black Hat – we want everyone, from the people just starting out (maybe the ones who’ve never engaged with the cybersecurity community before, who’ve only been hacking at home); to the practitioners who’ve made their tinkering into a career. 

Are you a *tinkerer? You’ll feel at home at Black Hat MEA 2025. Register now to meet your people and become part of the community. 

*(Are you wondering how many times we’ve written the word ‘tinkerer’ in this article? Eight. You’re welcome.)