Exhibitor booths are a major part of the Black Hat experience, giving companies a chance to bring their technology to life and make a lasting impression. This year, some took that creativity to a whole another level!
As someone who likes to experience the world through music, their creativity sparked a little of my own. I couldn’t resist giving my favorites a soundtrack to match their atmosphere.
Now turn up the volume! We’re pressing rewind on some of Black Hat’s most creative booths and going behind the spectacle to learn more about the cybersecurity companies that brought them to life.
Vega
- Theme: Vega Desert
- Song: “Shake Your Groove Thing” by Peaches & Herb
Vega brought a burst of 1970s energy to Black Hat with bright yellow colors, a live DJ, and dancers grooving around! It felt like a desert disco had landed in the middle of the expo floor, making “Shake Your Groove Thing” by Peaches & Herb the perfect song for the moment.
The experience introduced attendees to a decidedly futuristic company. Vega is an Agentic Cyber Defense company built around its Security Analytics Mesh, or SAM. The platform performs detection, triage, and investigation directly where an organization’s data already lives, eliminating the need to move everything into a centralized system for analysis.
Vega calls this the “Post-SIEM Era,” a shift away from traditional security models that require organizations to centralize massive amounts of data before they can analyze it. Instead, SAM brings the analytics to the data, helping security teams investigate threats across their existing environment at AI speed.
Inside Vega’s Black Hat Vision
When asked what inspired Vega’s Black Hat presence, Tyler Golden, Director of Field Marketing at Vega, shared:
“When a company comes to an event as significant as Black Hat, the biggest challenge is making a real impact amid all the noise. For us at Vega, it was the perfect opportunity to showcase who we truly are. We chose to establish a strong presence from the moment attendees arrived, creating one of the largest and most prominent booths at the entrance to the conference. The space seamlessly combined deep technological expertise, a bold and distinctive brand identity, and an immersive experience. We wanted everyone who walked through the doors to immediately feel the power of Vega, and I’m proud to say that’s exactly what we achieved.”
If this is what the future of cyber defense looks like, the Post-SIEM Era may be worth dancing about!
Black Kite
- Theme: Collective Resilience in the Forest
- Song: “Bloom” by The Paper Kites
Walking up to Black Kite’s booth felt like stepping away from the noise of Black Hat and into a quiet forest. The calm atmosphere immediately reminded me of the delicate guitar strumming at the beginning of “Bloom” by The Paper Kites. Even the song’s forest-filled music video felt as though it belonged in the space.
The peaceful setting carried an important cybersecurity message. Black Kite helps organizations understand the cyber risks that can enter through the vendors and suppliers they depend on. Its AI-native platform continuously analyzes external risk signals to identify potential trouble across these interconnected ecosystems.
Rather than viewing each company as an isolated defender, Black Kite uses shared intelligence to help organizations spot risks earlier and understand how threats could spread across their third-party relationships. It is an approach that fits naturally with the company’s vision of collective resilience.
The Network Beneath the Forest
Black Kite explained how the natural world inspired its Black Hat theme:
“Our Black Hat theme is all about collective resilience. Trees don’t defend the forest alone. They share resources, send warning signals, and strengthen the entire ecosystem through a connected underground network.
Black Kite works the same way. As more organizations use Black Kite’s intelligence to identify risk earlier and work with vendors to improve security, everyone benefits from stronger intelligence and a more resilient ecosystem.”
At Black Kite, resilience was not something built alone. It was something allowed to bloom together.
Saviynt
- Theme: Ride the AI Wave
- Song: “Cool Down” by Kolohe Kai
Walking up to Saviynt’s booth felt like stumbling upon a beachside retreat, complete with a surf shack and glowing fire pit. The laid-back escape immediately brought “Cool Down” by Hawaiian reggae band Kolohe Kai to mind. Its breezy, ocean-inspired sound made it the perfect match for Saviynt’s “Ride the AI Wave” theme.
Behind the beachy setting was a timely message about navigating the rising tide of enterprise AI. Saviynt focuses on identity security, including the growing challenge of securing AI agents that can access data and take action across business systems.
Through Zuma, its AI security platform, organizations can discover AI agents across their environments, establish who owns them, and control what they are allowed to access. Zuma can also evaluate an agent’s actions at runtime, helping stop unauthorized behavior before it reaches sensitive resources.
The Meaning Behind the AI Wave
Saviynt explained how Zuma Beach inspired its Black Hat theme:
“‘Ride the AI Wave,’ Saviynt’s Black Hat theme, captured how Saviynt helps organizations navigate the rapid rise of enterprise AI with Zuma, our new AI Identity Security platform. The theme draws inspiration from its namesake, Zuma Beach in Los Angeles, where the open shoreline offers an unobstructed view to the horizon. That sense of visibility reflects what organizations need as AI adoption accelerates, often beneath the surface. Saviynt helps them discover AI agents across their environments, govern what those agents can access and do, and establish clear ownership, so they can embrace AI securely and with confidence.”
For a moment, Saviynt made the Vegas desert feel like the perfect place to cool down and ride the next wave.
Noma
Theme: Keeping the Gnomes Under Control
Song: “Fiesta Pagana” by Mägo de Oz
Walking into Noma’s booth felt like stumbling into a gnome party that had gotten wonderfully out of hand.
When mischievous gnomes wreaked havoc and a game of Whack-a-Gnome unfolded, the lively chaos immediately evoked memories of “Fiesta Pagana” by the Spanish folk-metal band Mägo de Oz. Its energetic medieval vibe made it the ideal anthem for Noma’s gnome invasion.
This entertaining scenario highlighted a significant challenge emerging within modern enterprises. Noma specializes in helping businesses identify and secure AI agents across various platforms, from custom applications and SaaS services to coding assistants and MCP servers.
The Noma platform integrates AI security posture management with access control, adversarial testing, and runtime detection and response. By combining these features, organizations can pinpoint potential risks and maintain control over AI agents throughout their lifecycle.
Reason Behind Noma’s Gnome Release
Noma elaborated on how the mischievous gnomes symbolize the potential and unpredictability of autonomous AI:
“Our Black Hat theme revolves around the delicate balance between autonomy and control. Gnomes, representing AI agents, have revolutionized operations. They possess autonomy and non-deterministic capabilities, handling complex tasks and collaborating with other gnomes even while you’re asleep. However, their independence also poses risks—they are easily misled, prone to distractions, and can veer out of control in pursuit of a goal.
As enterprises deploy more autonomous agents across their operations, the need arises to securely deploy them for various tasks while ensuring they remain under control. This is where Noma steps in, enabling organizations to deploy agents securely.”
While the gnomes may have stirred up some chaos, Noma demonstrated how to prevent AI agents from contributing to it.
Torq
- Theme: The AI SOC Apocalypse
- Song: “Shepherd of Fire” by Avenged Sevenfold
Torq’s bold and flamboyant approach, featuring blue flames and a towering skeleton, transformed its booth into an apocalyptic setting reminiscent of a heavy metal music video. The theatrical display immediately brought to mind “Shepherd of Fire” by Avenged Sevenfold, with its foreboding intro and commanding sound perfectly complementing Torq’s AI SOC Apocalypse theme.
This robust personality extends to Torq’s technology, with its AI SOC Platform combining security operations with hyperautomation to empower security teams to investigate and respond to threats swiftly.
Central to this platform are Torq Socrates and the Torq SOC Brain, working in tandem with specialized AI agents to autonomously investigate alerts and counter threats. The primary objective is to alleviate the workload on analysts, enabling security teams to respond faster and develop advanced workflows.
Unveiling the AI SOC Apocalypse
Torq shed light on how its apocalyptic setting symbolizes the mounting pressure confronting security operations teams:
“Torq’s Black Hat booth was inspired by the stark reality of the ‘AI SOC apocalypse,’ a crisis fueled by relentless threat volumes, alert fatigue, and overwhelming analyst burnout. To visualize this crisis, Torq featured Skelly, a towering inflatable skeleton embodying the machine-speed threats that security teams must combat.
Infused with a cohesive, comic-book-inspired aesthetic incorporating hand-drawn flame motifs, halftone lettering, and a sky blue and black color scheme, every aspect of the booth, from interactive demos to comic-style collateral like ‘The AI SOC Apocalypse,’ was meticulously designed to reinforce Torq’s core message.
By juxtaposing the grim apocalypse depicted by passive, detection-only security tools with the proactive power of agentic automation, Torq effectively communicated a complex technical concept with a high-impact message: ‘If it can’t take action, it’s not an AI SOC.’”
Torq brought the heat to Black Hat, demonstrating that cybersecurity can be as intense as the threats it faces.
Stay Tuned for the Next Chapter
These immersive booths infused technology with personality, leaving a lasting impression on attendees long after the expo concluded.
Watch the full video showcasing these experiences on our LinkedIn page @cyberdefensemagazine or our new Instagram channel, @cyberdefensecafe.
The creativity doesn’t stop here. Part two will be unveiled soon, featuring more memorable booths and their corresponding soundtracks!
Angie Apolinar, a Lead Reporter at Cyber Defense Magazine and a recipient of the Women in Cybersecurity award, is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance at Western Governors University. She holds a degree in Psychology from California State University, Fullerton. Angie actively serves as a Cyber Mentor, assisting in grooming the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. She has also contributed to various NASA research and workforce development initiatives, including L’SPACE, where she was involved in mission concepts, systems engineering, software design, and AI-driven aerospace research.
Contact Angie via email at [email protected].
Transform the following:
Original: The cat is sleeping on the couch.
Transformed: The couch is being slept on by the cat.
