ITSPmagazine From Hacker Defense to Civil Liberties: Threat Modeling Meets Constitutional Law | A Black Hat USA 2025 Keynote Conversation with Jennifer Granick | On Location Coverage with Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli
At Black Hat USA 2025, Jennifer Granick—Surveillance and Cybersecurity Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union—takes the keynote stage to make a bold case: we are long overdue for a new threat model, one that sees government surveillance not as a background risk, but as a primary threat to constitutional privacy.
Granick draws from decades of experience defending hackers, fighting surveillance overreach, and engaging with the security community since DEFCON 3. She challenges the audience to reconsider outdated assumptions about how the Fourth Amendment is interpreted and applied. While technology has made it easier than ever for governments to collect data, the legal system hasn’t kept pace—and in many cases, fails to recognize the sheer scope and sensitivity of personal information exposed through modern services.
Her talk doesn’t just raise alarm; it calls for action. Granick suggests that while legal reform is sluggish—stymied by a lack of political will and lobbying power—there’s an urgent opportunity for the technical community to step up. From encryption to data minimization and anonymization, technologists have the tools to protect civil liberties even when the law falls short.
The session promises to be a wake-up call for engineers, designers, policymakers, and privacy advocates. Granick wants attendees to leave not only more informed, but motivated to build systems that limit the unnecessary collection, retention, and exposure of personal data.
Her keynote also surfaces a critical cultural shift: from the “Spot the Fed” days of DEFCON to a more nuanced understanding of government roles—welcoming collaboration where it serves the public good, but not at the expense of unchecked surveillance.
This conversation reframes privacy as a design problem as much as a legal one—and one that requires collective effort to address. If the law can’t fix it, the question becomes: will the technology community rise to the challenge?
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Guest:
Jennifer Granick, Surveillance and Cybersecurity Counsel at American Civil Liberties Union | On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifergranick/
Hosts:
Sean Martin, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine | Website: https://www.seanmartin.com
Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine | Website: https://www.marcociappelli.com
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Resources
Keynote: Threat Modeling and Constitutional Law: https://www.blackhat.com/us-25/briefings/schedule/index.html#keynote-threat-modeling-and-constitutional-law-48276
Learn more and catch more stories from our Black Hat USA 2025 coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/bhusa25
ITSPmagazine Webinar: What’s Heating Up Before Black Hat 2025: Place Your Bet on the Top Trends Set to Shake Up this Year’s Hacker Conference — An ITSPmagazine Thought Leadership Webinar | https://www.crowdcast.io/c/whats-heating-up-before-black-hat-2025-place-your-bet-on-the-top-trends-set-to-shake-up-this-years-hacker-conference
Catch all of our event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/technology-and-cybersecurity-conference-coverage
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KEYWORDS
marco ciappelli, jennifer granick, black hat usa, surveillance, privacy, encryption, constitution, threat modeling, cybersecurity, civil liberties, event coverage, on location, conference
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