Years ago, folks might pick up a vinyl single for the A-side track. The song on the B-side of the record was considered somewhat of a freebie. You know — a little extra bang for your buck.
The same concept applies to cybersecurity conferences. N0, really.
Take your high-cost conferences with name recognition — say, your DEFCONs and your Black Hats. Those conferences area the equivalent of an A-side conference, according to Wilmington University Center for Cyber Security Director Mark Hufe. You can shell out stacks of bills for big conferences like those, or attend similar conferences running nearby for free: B-side conferences.
Hufe has been helping run the Security Bsides Delaware at WilmU since 2010. The annual event at the university is just one of over 50 chapters of the conference, which, like its namesake, is free to attend for cybersecurity professionals looking to both “meet interesting people” and “meet uninteresting people,” according to the flier.
The event is taking place Nov. 13-14 this year and will feature discussions, demos, networking, a wireless capture the flag game and even something called “Spawn Camp” for professionals who want to get their children into security. The structure of the entire event is based off of the bigger picture Bsides framework — a model for community-driven events “for and by information security community members.”
And it’s not just cybersecurity — its physical security as well. There will be lockpicking lessons for aspiring locksmiths out there.
Attendees can also look forward to another year of Maven Security’s “Pros vs Joes” competition, an event where regular Joe Schmoes are provided an opportunity to defend against network threats alongside security professionals. Maven recently hosted the event at BSides in Las Vegas.
Sounds pretty nice for a B-side.
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