The History of Security BSides

It Starts...

In the summer of 2009, shortly after the BlackHat Security Conference had announced its speaker lineup, a conversation began. Initially started as an exclamation of disappointment over not being accepted to speak, the discussion took place on the Internet: over Twitter, Facebook, and email. It was frank, it was open, and it involved a number of people from the security industry - including Mike Murray, Chris Nickerson, Mike Dahn, Davi Ottenheimer, Anton Chuvakin, and several others. While this conversation was occurring, another was happening as well. This one was focused on  the politics of various security conferences, and the desire to create a more friendly event that could be enjoyed by all. This conversation was also open, and included Travis Goodspeed and the neighborcon crew, folks from DC949, and others. 

These separate conversations eventually melded, and from them grew several grass roots movements that took the Information Security industry by storm. One of these is Security BSides.

2009

As the summer progressed, Mike Murray, Mike Dahn, and Jennifer Leggio sat down to map out what the business side of a community driven security event should look like. Mike Dahn originally intended for it to be called Security Fringe. Under advice from his friends, the name Security BSides was chosen instead. Mike Murray and Jennifer were unable to fully commit the time needed to continue planning BSides, so shortly after this meeting, Mike announced to those involved in the prior discussions his intent to hold a BSides event, to be held at the same time as BlackHat. All agreed that it was a GoodThing(TM), and planning moved forward.

As the time for the event drew near, a number of people put in a lot of time, effort, and money, to help make it a success:

• Chris Nickerson provided a house to use as a venue, gathered sponsorship, and generally made things happen.
• Jeff Espinosa worked to get transportation and other details arranged.
• Mike Dahn set up the website, and helped to gather sponsors.
• Jack Daniel got things done, and downplays his involvement to this day.
• Travis GoodSpeed made the badges
• Various folks from DC949, 303, and others from the community provided manpower required to keep things running

A family tragedy the week before the event required Mike Dahn's attention. As a result, Chris Nickerson and Jack Daniel bore the responsibility for finalizing the plans, and executing the event. This they did, with much help from their friends.

On July 29-30, 2009, Security BSides 1.0 was held. It was a wild success: the talks were good, the party was better, and it was clear that the security community was excited at the idea of a conference that focused on conversations and personal interaction with peers. Those involved in the first event had a vision of rolling the idea out at a regional level, enabling local organizers to set up similar conferences in their own area.

It seemed evident that a more formal structure would be required to facilitate such an undertaking. As a result, Mike, Chris, and Jack began laying out the groundwork of what such an organization should look like. Because Jack was an employee of a BSides sponsor at the time, he removed himself from direct financial involvement to ensure that there would be no appearance of impropriety. This resulted in Mike continuing to establish the business side of Security BSides: setting up banking and PayPal accounts, establishing a business entity in the US state of California, etc. Assisting Mike through all of this was Amber Wolf, who contributed her time and energy helping to manage the financial and administrative aspects of the BSides organization.

2010

In July 2010, Security BSides hit its stride. Chris Nickerson again secured a house for the Las Vegas conference, this time a mansion on 1.5 acres in the outskirts of the city. There were four pools, two tracks, 25 volunteers, somewhere around 650 attendees, and a whole lot more folks that tried to get in despite having not registered. In addition to Las Vegas, BSides events were held in Berlin, Ottawa, Dallas, Delaware, Atlanta, Kansas City, Denver, Boston, Austin, and San Francisco. These local conferences ranged from 100 participants, to over 300. It was clear that the idea of Security BSides was something the community liked.

2011

In 2011, the BSides movement grew to over 40 events, and established an even larger global presence, adding Australia and Africa to the list of continents that Security BSides had reached. With the explosion of the BSides idea, came a need for the business side of the organization to grow as well. To help facilitate that process, in March 2011 Mike Dahn registered Security BSides as a corporation in the state of California. 

Today

Security BSides is two things: an idea, and a company.

The company, as mentioned, is a California-based 501(c)(3) non-profit entity called "Security B-Sides".

The Security BSides idea, however, is the thing that drives dozens of local regional events around the world. 

The principles behind the idea are simple:

• Expand the conversation.
• Enable people to join the discussion. 
• Get people involved.

These principles are owned by no one, they belong to the security community. Those involved in BSides events care deeply about that community, and believe that the ideas represented by the BSides movement are important.This why so many people have given their time, energy - and in many cases their money - to help make BSides happen.