Two More Black Hat Talks Cancelled; Presentation On Hacking Passenger Jets Is Still On

Two more talks at Black Hat have been cancelled but the presentation detailing the theoretical hacking of passenger jets is still on for Thursday.

Black Hat, an information security series, is globally renowned and has evolved into a premier event for security researchers and professionals.  

Cancellations are not uncommon, but there have been more than usual this year, according to Reuters.

The latest two cancellations include a talk on breaking into home-alarm systems and the other on a sophisticated Russian espionage campaign known as "Snake."  A highly anticipated talk on how to identify users of the Internet privacy service Tor was cancelled last month.

"It sort of comes with the territory when you have the latest and sometimes controversial research scheduled to be presented on stage," conference spokeswoman Meredith Corley told Reuters. She did not know if three cancellations was a record number for one year.

Logan Lamb, an employee with Oakridge National Laboratory, had pulled a talk dubbed: "Home insecurity: no alarms, false alarms and sigint." 

BAE Systems PLC researcher Sergei Shevchenko was slated to deliver a talk on "Dissecting Snake" on Wednesday. 

A much anticipated talk by Ruben Santamarta, a consultant with cyber security firm IOActive, is taking place Thursday. 

Santamarta reportedly hacked the satellite communications system used by passenger jets and is presenting his findings.