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A list of security conferences canceled or postponed due to coronavirus concerns

Some conferences have canceled, some have postponed the event, while others have gone virtual.
Written by Catalin Cimpanu, Contributor
Illustration of the spread of a new coronavirus from China around the world

Illustration of the spread of a new coronavirus from China around the world. Vector illustration.

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As tech conferences and trade shows are being canceled, postponed, or going virtual left and right, many cyber-security events are meeting a similar fate, all due to health concerns caused by the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19.

Cyber-security professionals who couldn't attend some of their favorite conferences before -- primarily due to time, travel, or health reasons -- may find that some events are now being streamed and they may be able to watch sessions from the comfort or their home or workspace.

The list below encompasses a list of upcoming events and their respective status. Conferences not listed are scheduled to go on as planned. The list includes only cancellations, postponed conferences, or those who announced plans to stream their content.


FIRST CTI - March 9 to March 11, Zurich - Current status: Canceled.
Wild West Hacking Fest - March 10 to March 13, San Diego - Current status: Virtual.
Red Team Summit - March 11 to March 12, Menlo Park - Current status: Postponed to June 11-12.
Women in Cybersecurity - March 12 to March 14, Aurora (Colorado) - Current status: Canceled.
CiderSecurityCon - March 14 to March 15, Manheim (Germany) - Current status: Canceled.
Troopers - March 16 to March 20, Heidelberg (Germany) - Current status: Canceled.
ICS West (trade show) - March 17 to March 20, Las Vegas - Current status: Postponed to July, new date to be announced.
Cyber Security & Cloud Expo (trade show) - March 17 to March 18, London - Current status: Postponed, new date to be announced.
SecureWorld Philadelphia - March 18 to March 19, Philadelphia - Current status: Postponed, new date to be announced.
Pwn2Own CanSecWest (hacking contest) - March 18 to March 20, Vancouver - Current status: Optional remote-participation. Hackers participating in the Pwn2Own hacker contest can attend, but they can also ask content organizers to execute exploits on their behalf.
InfoSecurity Belgium - March 18 to March 19, Brussels - Current status: Postponed to May 27 - 28.
InsomniHack - March 19 to March 20, Geneva - Current status: Postponed to June 4 - June 5.
BSides Vancouver - March 22 to March 24, Vancouver - Current status: Postponed. New date to be announced later.
Fast Software Encryption - March 22 to March 26, Athens- Current status: Postponed. New date to be announced later.
Kernelcon - March 25 to March 28, Omaha - Current status: Virtual.
SecureWorld Boston - March 25 to March 26, Boston - Current status: Postponed, new date to be announced.
BSides Budapest - March 26, Budapest - Current status: Postponed to May 28.
WORP Summit - March 27 to March 29, Fort Washington, PA - Current status: Postponed to September 18-20.
Black Hat Asia - March 31 to April 3, Singapore - Current status: Postponed for September 29 - October 2.
BSidesCharm - April 4 to April 5, Baltimore - Current status: Proceeding as normal, but on adjusted rules. Remote speakers will be given the option to use video conferencing and avoid traveling to the conference.
BountyCon - April 4 to April 5, Singapore - Current status: Postponed to August 31.
FIRST TC - April 6 to April 8, Amsterdam - Current status: Postponed to next year.
GISEC - April 6 to April 8, Dubai - Current status: Postponed to September 1 - 3.
Kaspersky's Security Analyst Summit - April 6 to April 9, Barcelona - Current status: Postponed for September. Exact date to be announced later.
BSides Austin - April 9 to April 10, Austin - Current status: Postponed to December 8 - 11.
DEF CON China - April 17 to April 19, Beijing - Current status: Postponed, new date to be announced.
Mediterranehack - April 18, Salerno - Current status: Postponed, to September 5.
Malware Analyst Conference - April 18, Padua - Current status: Postponed, to a later date.
Hack in the Box - April 20 to April 24, Amsterdam - Current status: Canceled.
InfiltrateCon - April 23 to April 24, Miami - Current status: Postponed to October.
Internet Freedom Festival - April 20 to April 24, Valencia - Current status: Canceled.
HardWear USA - April 27 to April 29, Santa Clara- Current status: Canceled.
Wallmart's Sp4rkCon - May 2, Bentonville, Arizona - Current status: Postponed to October 3.
ISSA Summit - May 5 to May 8, Los Angeles - Current status: Postponed. New date to be announced at a later time.
THOTCON - May 8 to May 9, Chicago - Current status: Postponed to September 11-12.
BSides Kansas City - May 8 to May 9, Kansas City - Current status: Postponed to October 16-17.
USENIX PEPR - May 11 to May 12, Santa Clara, California - Current status: Postponed to October 15-16.
Fortinet Accelerate - May 16 to May 21, New York - Current status: Canceled.
IEEE S&P - May 18 to May 20,San Francisco - Current status: Virtual.
NoName Con - May 21 to May 22, Kiev - Current status: Postponed to a date in the fall, to be announced.
CyCon - May 26 to May 29, Tallinn - Current status: Canceled.
Kids SecuriDay - May 30, Sydney - Current status: Postponed for later this year. New date to be announced.
National Cyber Summit - June 2 to June 4, Huntsville, Alabama- Current status: Postponed to June 8-10, 2021, next year.
BSides San Antonio - June 6, San Antonio, Texas - Current status: Postponed to July 11, 2020.
Area41 - June 11 to June 12, Zurich - Current status: Postponed to June 2021, next year.
CircleCityCon - June 12 to June 14, Indianapolis- Current status: Virtual.
OWASP Global AppSec - June 15 to June 19, Dublin - Current status: Postponed to February 15-19, 2021.
BSides Liverpool - June 29, Liverpool - Current status: Postponed to later this year.
SteelCon - July 7 to July 12, Birmingham, UK - Current status: Canceled.
Black Hat USA - August 1 to August 6, Las Vegas - Current status: Virtual.
Bsides Las Vegas - August 4 to August 5, Las Vegas - Current status: Canceled.
DEF CON USA - August 7 to August 9, Las Vegas - Current status: Virtual.


Conferences scheduled past May have not announced any changes to their schedule yet. Most are hoping the COVID-19 outbreak would subside and they can go as planned. ZDNet will update the list with new cancelation announcements as we draw near the scheduled dates.

Tech news aggregator site Techmeme maintains a similar list of cancelations or postponed tech conferences.

Big-name tech conferences that have already been canceled include the Mobile Web Congress, Facebook's F8 developer conference, Google's I/O developer conference, IBM's Think 2020, Zoho's Zoholics, and SXSW.

Conferences that have opted to go virtual include Microsoft's WSL Conference, NVIDIA's GTC, the Adobe Summit, Atlassia Summit, and Google Cloud Next.

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