Information Safety

Improving technology through lessons from safety.

Security Conferences

· @jabenninghoff

Someone on a local Slack group was looking for security conferences where they could present. Prompted by this, I went looking for a good list, and because I couldn’t find one, I created one!

Here’s my list of high-quality conferences where I’ve attended, presented, or would submit to in the future. This list is tailored towards cybersecurity professionals, and excludes academic conferences.

Minnesota

There are two notable security conferences in Minnesota, Secure360 and the Cybersecurity Summit.

  • Secure360: a strong regional conference held in May, currently at the conference center at Mystic Lake in Prior Lake. It’s been held for almost 20 years and was formed when the local chapters of security professional associations banded together to put on a conference (ISSA, ASIS, BCPA, ISFA, ISACA). (A photo of my 2024 talk, Security Differently is the top center photo here)
  • Cybersecurity Summit: the other major security conference in MN, held in October, now in its 14th year. It was started by the University of MN in partnership with MN-based corporations, other academic institutions, and government partners.

SiRA

As a SiRA member and former board member, SiRAcon gets a special mention.

  • SiRAcon: the annual conference of SiRA, the Society of Information Risk Analysts. SiRA was started in Minnesota, but now has a national and international reach. SiRA focuses on risk quantification and improving the practice of risk analysis applied to cybersecurity and technology. SiRAcon has no set date, and was last held August 20-22, 2024. SiRA members have access to recordings of past conferences.

USA

There are several US-based cybersecurity conferences, including the most well-known (RSA and BlackHat / DEFCON), as well as national conferences for professional associations. Many have additional venues outside the US:

  • RSA Conference USA: AFAIK, the largest security conference in the world, held annually in San Francisco in May. It’s expensive and highly competitive for talk submissions.
  • Black Hat USA and DEFCON: DEFCON was the original “Hacker” conference first held in Las Vegas in 1993. Black Hat started in 1997 as the “corporate” version of DEFCON. Both are held back to back in Las Vegas in August.
  • Security BSides: a loosely affiliated group of conferences, originally started to feature talks rejected from Black Hat, and later RSA. BSidesSF and BSidesLV are held roughly concurrently with the main conferences (RSA, Black Hat).
  • OWASP Global AppSec: Originally AppSec USA, OWASP hosts a global Application Security focused conference in the fall (September 2024 and November in 2025 and 2026).
  • ISC2 Security Congress: the annual conference held by ISC2, which is best known for creating the CISSP certification, held in October.
  • ISACA North America: the US-based conference of ISACA, which covers both security audit (CISA) and security management (CISM), held in May.

Canada

There are two Canadian conferences I’ve attended - each only once, but both were high quality.

  • CanSecWest - held in Vancouver in March, a highly technical conference, and the originators of the Pwn2Own contest.
  • SecTor - originally an independent conference held in Toronto, it is now associated with Black Hat and in its 18th year.