Every year when we head to Black Hat, I’m reminded just how much this event has grown — and how much we’ve grown alongside it. This August in Las Vegas was no exception.
We showed up in force. The booth was buzzing, with a mix of pre-booked meetings and curious attendees dropping by. What stood out to me was how many people didn’t realize just how big IPinfo has become. We’ve been steadily building over the years, a slow and deliberate climb, and it’s paying off. There’s still plenty of new ground to cover, but there’s also a strong recognition of the role we play in the security space.
Staying True to Our Mission
Black Hat always has its trends. This year, it was AI. Everywhere you turned, someone was pitching their “AI-powered” solution. That’s fine. But it’s not us.
While other companies chase the theme of the moment, we’ve stayed consistent. Our focus is simple: create the best internet data on the planet, and keep making it better. That consistency cuts through the noise. We’re here to deliver something foundational that our customers can depend on year after year.
Since the last Black Hat conference, we've greatly expanded our offerings to this community. IPinfo provides trusted IP intelligence across the security stack:
- IPinfo Core: Includes city-level geolocation precision and boolean privacy flags (VPN, proxy, Tor, hosting) for essential privacy context
- IPinfo Plus: Names anonymizing services (e.g., NordVPN), tracks location and ASN changes, and includes carrier metadata for high-resolution IP intelligence
- Residential Proxy Detection: Identify one of the most evasive forms of anonymized IP address with detailed data: provider name, last observed activity data, stability score
The Conversations That Matter Most
One of the things I love about Black Hat is that it changes the quality of the conversations. Being in Vegas seems to make people more relaxed — enough that they open up in a way they might not on a regular call.
Our solutions and data engineers had an incredible time connecting the dots between their work and what our customers actually experience. These were candid chats about what’s working, what isn’t, and what still needs solving.
We also had a friendly, but competitive round of TopGolf during Black Hat. With an instructor on hand to help sharpen everyone’s swings, the night was full of great shots, plenty of laughs, and a lot of conversations around VPN detection, residential proxies, and other IP intelligence use cases. In the end, Steve Giguere of Lakera took home the win (and some Sony Headphones) with the highest-scoring round of the night.
Why Black Hat Works for IPinfo
Black Hat is perfect for us because everywhere we look, there are existing and potential customers — users who need better, more accurate IP data to make critical decisions. That’s why we’ll keep showing up, bigger and better each year. We’ll keep talking to customers face-to-face. We’ll keep listening. And we’ll keep doing what we do best: relentlessly pursuing the most accurate, reliable internet data out there.
To everyone who stopped by, said hello, or shared your story, thank you. See you next year.
About the author
Ben founded IPinfo in 2013 with the goal of providing reliable, easily accessible IP address data. As IPinfo CEO, he is committed to constantly improving that data and how customers can use it.
