This Saturday the 20th Security BSides Athens 2020 is going to take place. This year, due to the health precautions the event evolved from a physical event to a virtual one on line. For those already attending well done, for the rest of you that you are thinking about it, we would like to take this opportunity to provide you with a brief History of the Security BSides events and maybe change your mind into participating.

The Early Years

It was way back in the stone ages (2009), when the BlackHat Security Conference announced its speaker line-up. Due to physical restrictions not all speakers that applied were accepted. That sparked several online discussions that ranged from simple disappointment for missing out to the creation of a more friendly format for the security events that all participants would feel welcome and will be able to enjoy themselves.

It was those online conversations that inspired Mike Murray, Mike Dahn, and Jennifer Leggio to sit down and design a community-based security event. The timing was good, so they moved into arranging the details. We won’t bore you with the details, but let us just say that several people put in a lot of time effort and money. And the outcome of their hard work was that on July 29-30, 2009, Security BSides 1.0 was held, and it was held successfully. That is why in 2010 apart from the Las Vegas one, Security BSides events were organised in Berlin, Ottawa, Dallas, Delaware, Atlanta, Kansas City, Denver, Boston, Austin, and San Francisco. But it was 2011 that Security BSides grew into a really global event with 40 events taking place worldwide. Over the years these events have tremendously evolved in providing cybersecurity enthusiasts the stage to showcase cutting-edge security work, while remaining vendor neutral. This in itself, has been one of the most successful attributes of the Security BSides events around the globe, as security researchers can freely join the conversation and present their ideas. 

Security BSides Athens

It was the same principles of inclusivity, diversity, and openness that led to the first Security BSides event being organised in the city of Athens in 2016 and the rest is history. Every year since then [1.2.3] the event grew to include even more people and acted as a meeting point for the cybersecurity community in Greece.

Security BSides Athens is an information security community event and it provides a forum for a healthy debate about the issues that the community is interested. TwelveSec as an organisation believes in those values and from the get go was adamant that it will do anything within our powers to help the community grow. That is why for a fifth consecutive year we are putting our money where our mouth is and we will be supporting Security BSides Athens as a Platinum Sponsor. We are extremely proud of it and we sincerely hope to continue doing so, for years to come.

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