Uploaded October 2019 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
Online bots and real-world robots are both capable of manipulating people and communities. Online bots are part of attacks on human belief systems that range in scale from nation-states to smaller communities, aimed at disrupting, causing division and forcing group opinion. Current bot developers have shown good results with relatively unsophisticated programs, but algorithms exist to make these bots much more effective. Embodying these online bots into physical hardware bodies changes both the social dynamics and legal implications regarding their action.; Embodied bots, (ie. robots), can be used to socially engineer people by gaining their trust, and manipulating them into doing or saying something they otherwise might not. Increasingly sophisticated, free-roaming bots and robots also bring questions of responsibility, personhood, privacy rights and liability: we need to develop legal and policy frameworks to address AI, robots, and their interplay with our society now.
We discuss the mechanisms by which bots and robots manipulate people, the mitigations available, and the legal implications of such behaviours. We cover how to manipulate people online at scale, who's doing it (and why), why it works and how to defend yourself. We talk about the interplay between large-scale data collection and embodied robot manipulation of humans, how emotions are used, and how data collected by robots can be even more privacy invading because people form social bonds and attachments with robots. We also cover robot policy and law, and expected issues as bots become more sophisticated and ubiquitous. We finish with recommendations for attendees wanting to counter potential attacks.
Online bots and real-world robots are both capable of manipulating people and communities. Online bots are part of attacks on human belief systems that range in scale from nation-states to smaller communities, aimed at disrupting, causing division and forcing group opinion. Current bot developers have shown good results with relatively unsophisticated programs, but algorithms exist to make these bots much more effective. Embodying these online bots into physical hardware bodies changes both the social dynamics and legal implications regarding their action.; Embodied bots, (ie. robots), can be used to socially engineer people by gaining their trust, and manipulating them into doing or saying something they otherwise might not. Increasingly sophisticated, free-roaming bots and robots also bring questions of responsibility, personhood, privacy rights and liability: we need to develop legal and policy frameworks to address AI, robots, and their interplay with our society now.
We discuss the mechanisms by which bots and robots manipulate people, the mitigations available, and the legal implications of such behaviours. We cover how to manipulate people online at scale, who's doing it (and why), why it works and how to defend yourself. We talk about the interplay between large-scale data collection and embodied robot manipulation of humans, how emotions are used, and how data collected by robots can be even more privacy invading because people form social bonds and attachments with robots. We also cover robot policy and law, and expected issues as bots become more sophisticated and ubiquitous. We finish with recommendations for attendees wanting to counter potential attacks.
![Black Hat USA 2018 - Mainframe [z/OS] Reverse Engineering and Exploit Development](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/opBLBYAR8tU/mqdefault.jpg "Black Hat USA 2018 - Mainframe [z/OS] Reverse Engineering and Exploit Development
Speak with any Fortune 500 running mainframe and theyll tell you two things: (1) without their mainframes theyd be out of business (2) they do not conduct any security research on them, let alone vulnerability scans. The most infuriating part is that mainframes are simply computers, theyre different from what youre used to, but that doesnt mean they cant be hacked. Previous talks about this topic have covered the platform from a high level, imploring you to do the basics. This talk continues this series of talks, given by others, around mainframe hacking. Previously covered topics included network penetration testing and privilege escalation. To complement those talks, this talk will expose attendees to the various tools that exist on the platform to help you do your own reverse engineering, followed by detailed steps on how to start your own exploit development. Attendees will learn what debuggers are available on the platform, such as dbx and ASMIDF, as well as the challenges youll have using them. After learning how to RE, attendees will then learn how to develop their own exploits and buffer overflows on the platform using C, assembler and JCL. A demo program will be used to teach all these items so people can follow along. Topics included in this discussion are APF authorization, bypassing RACF/ACEE, TSO, Unix System Services.")
