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

March 7, 2020 TH Author

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.

Wild West Hacking Fest – March 10 to March 13, San Diego – Current status: Virtual.
Women in Cybersecurity – March 12 to March 14, Aurora (Colorado) – Current status: Canceled.
ICS West (trade show) – March 17 to March 20, Las Vegas – Current status: Postponed to July, 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.
InsomniHack – March 19 to March 20, Geneva – Current status: Postponed to June 4 – June 5.
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 on adjusted rules. Remote speakers will be given the option to use video conferencing and avoid traveling to the conference.
Kaspersky’s Security Analyst Summit – April 6 to April 9, Barcelona – Current status: Postponed for September. Exact date to be announced later.
DEF CON China – April 17 to April 19, Beijing – Current status: Postponed, new date to be announced.
Area41 – June 11 to June 12, Zurich – Current status: Postponed to June 2021, next year.

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.