Are you a hacker or an information security professional looking for conferences down under? Our non-comprehensive list features the major cyber events Australia has to offer in 2019.

February

BSides Melbourne

Melbourne, VIC

Website: https://www.bsidesmelbourne.com/

BSides Melbourne is a community-driven event, 100% volunteer-run put on by and for the community. BSides is a conference that provides a platform for first-time speakers, students, new and experienced professionals an environment to present their work in a friendly and welcoming environment.

March

BSides Canberra

Canberra, ACT

Website: https://www.bsidesau.com.au/

BSides Canberra is the largest hacker con in Australia! Each BSides is a community-driven framework for building events for and by information security community members. The goal is to expand the spectrum of conversation beyond the traditional confines of space and time. It creates opportunities for individuals to both present and participate in an intimate atmosphere that encourages collaboration. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants. It is where conversations for the next-big-thing are happening.

April

CrikeyCon

Brisbane, QLD

Website: https://www.crikeycon.com

CrikeyCon is a community-led conference targeting those with an interest in information security around South East Queensland and beyond. The informal style of the event is designed to facilitate knowledge sharing between all participants. CrikeyCon consists of presentations and demonstrations by industry professionals, security wizards, and enthusiasts alike.

May

TuskCon

Sunshine Coast, QLD

Website: http://tuskcon.org/

TuskCon is a two-day hacker camp with an emphasis on hands-on learning and activities, not death by powerpoint. Now running for its second year, TuskCon will showcase the beautiful sunshine coast region, with activities utilising the surrounding environment. We encourage participation from all, especially new and novel activities that wouldn't fit into a conventional con's agenda.

AusCERT

Gold Coast, QLD

Website: https://conference.auscert.org.au

The AusCERT Conference is the largest and oldest information security conference in Australia. Each year, the conference attracts in the vicinity of 800 participants, approximately 50 sponsors and more than 50 speakers.

The conference is held on Australia’s beautiful Gold Coast where the weather is fine and warm, even in winter. AusCERT is a great opportunity to discuss IT security issues, network with industry peers, see the latest in IT security products and services, and enjoy 5-star accommodation, good food, wine and entertainment.

June

BSides Brisbane

Brisbane, QLD

Website: https://bsidesbrisbane.com

BSides Brisbane delivers high-quality content in what would typically be considered an unorthodox approach, which the organisers hope will keep people interested and entice attendees that would usually not attend these sorts of events.

Each BSides is a community-driven framework for building events for and by information security community members. The goal is to expand the spectrum of conversation beyond the traditional confines of space and time. It creates opportunities for individuals to both present and participate in an intimate atmosphere that encourages collaboration. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants. It is where conversations for the next-big-thing are happening.

September

BSides Perth

Perth, WA

Website: https://bsidesperth.com.au/

Bsides Perth is an event where the local community can showcase the best it has on offer. The conference provides a platform for national and international speakers to present to a passionate group of people.

Security BSides is a hacker convention that provides a community-driven framework for information security conferences. BSides was co-founded by Mike Dahn, Jack Daniel, and Chris Nickerson in 2009. Due to an overwhelming number of presentation submissions to Black Hat USA in 2009, the rejected presentations were presented to a smaller group of individuals. Over time the conference format matured and was released to enable individuals to start their own BSides conferences.

October

AISA Cyber Conference

Melbourne, VIC

Website: https://cyberconference.com.au/

The Australian Cyber Conference provides business leaders with insights and best practices taught by the industry’s top experts through keynotes, panel sessions and live demonstrations.

Attending the conference enables everyone to network with these practitioners to help better understand and manage current threats, as well as identify and prepare to meet emerging challenges. An interactive format of workshops, plenary sessions and the opportunity to network with expert practitioners in the field of cyber security is a must for all organisations in the current business environment.

Unconfirmed

BrisSEC

Brisbane, QLD – March

Website: https://www.aisa.org.au/Public/Events/Conferences/BrisSEC_2018/BrisSEC18.aspx

BrisSEC18 is an Australian first, a security conference designed to enable collaboration between all business groups and all security practitioners. A conference for everyone to enjoy, and to learn from each other.

ACSC

Canberra, ACT – April

Website: https://acsc.gov.au/conference2018/

The ACSC Conference is one of the premier cyber security conferences providing delegates, sponsors and exhibitors with an opportunity to get together, hear from experts and forge collaborative partnerships.

WAHCKon

Perth, WA – May

Website: https://wahckon.org.au

WAHCKon (West Australian Hackers Conference) is a Perth based Hacker conference that launched in 2013. It covers a wide range of topics focusing on Information security and Hacker subculture as well as locksports, activism and related areas. The conference attracts a highly diverse set of people with a focus of bringing the community together.

OzSecCon

Melbourne, VIC – June

Website: https://ozseccon.com/

OzSecCon is the first open community event on physical security in Australia. The conference focus is on both analogue and digital physical security systems and is open to professionals and hobbyists alike. The 2-day event provides a community space to share expertise on tools and techniques to learn new skills and refine existing ones.

PlatypusCon

Sydney, NSW – September

Website: https://letsjusthackshit.org/

PlatypusCon aims to build a super hands-on event: that is, instead of a series of talks while the audience plans on missing to catch up with your friends at the cafe down the road, the organisers are putting together a full day of hands-on workshops where everyone can get their hands dirty and the attendees can all help each other learn something new.

Bring your laptop (or phone or tablet or whatever) to get the most out of this event: in fact, bring something you can SSH on or don’t come at all.

Ruxcon

Melbourne, VIC – October

Website: https://ruxcon.org.au/

Ruxcon is a computer security conference brings together the best and the brightest security talent within the Aus-Pacific region. The conference is a mixture of live presentations, activities and demonstrations presented by security experts. Ruxcon is widely regarded as a leading computer security conference within Australia attracting all facets of the security landscape.

Ruxcon provides a provides a laid-back environment for our delegates to engage and collaborate with a broad spectrum of like-minded students, enthusiasts, hackers, and security professionals.

OWASP AppSec Day

Melbourne, VIC – October

Website: https://appsecday.io/

AppSec Day is Australia’s only conference dedicated entirely to application security. Aimed at providing a welcoming environment for developers, testers, devops engineers and security professionals alike.

To improve their application security knowledge, skills and to network with other like-minded professionals. With a day filled with talks, hands-on workshops and panel sessions to learn all things application security.

Update (29/11/2019): A few more conferences are available here: https://fst.net.au/events (thanks, @Larryfollowing)

Closing Words

Did we miss anything? Is something inaccurate? Contact us and let us know!

This list is based on @hakluke and @codingo_'s APAC Infosec Conferences repository on GitHub. Thank you for that!