Black Hat Founder Jeff Moss Named CSO of ICANN, Becomes Black Hat Conference Chair

It looks like Jeff Moss (aka The DarkTangent), the founder of Black Hat, will be back heading up the conference series he created several years ago. According to an announcement today, Moss has taken on the position of Black Hat Conference Chair.

Moss has also been named CSO of ICANN, the non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. In his new position as Conference Chair, Moss will continue to play a key role with the Black Hat team and community on the development of conference and training content while also having the ability to serve in his role as CSO of ICANN.

“Jeff has done an incredible job of building the Black Hat brand and he’s done so by focusing on the quality of the content and the interests of the community. His new role as conference chair is a reflection of this focus. We’re also excited for Jeff to be able to serve ICANN and see this as a validation of the great work that he and the Black Hat team have done,” said Kathy Astromoff EVP and Group General Manager of UBM TechWeb, the producers of Black Hat. “We’re excited that Jeff will continue to be a part of the Black Hat community and brand.”

Moss founded the Black Hat conference series, helping to drive the concept of ethical hacking and making it increasingly mainstream. Moss eventually sold the conference brand to publishing company CMP (now UBM) but has remained involved.

Moss is also the founder of DEF CON, one of the oldest continuous running hacker conventions that typically takes place in Las Vegas toward the end of July or early August. Don’t worry about the heat though, those at DEF CON don’t tend spend much time outside during the day.

Related: Black Hat’s Moss is Getting Offensive

Related: ATM Hacking Video – Barnaby Jack Demonstrates ATM Hacking at Black Hat USA 2010