BSides CambridgeMA 2024 will be a structured conference with a single presentation track. Please consider submitting a proposal for one or more of the following formats:
- 10 minute Lightning Talk (max 1 speaker)
- 30-60 minute Presentation + Q&A (up to 2 speakers)
- 30-60 minute Panel Discussion (max 3 panelists + 1 moderator)
Submission deadline is July 15, 2024
The theme for BSides CambridgeMA 2024 is
The electronic frontier is a wild place.
Resilience on the Electronic Frontier
Data barons work to enclose the vast digital commons, fencing people in and then harvesting their data to sell to anyone who will pay.
Cyber bandits roam the networks, capturing unguarded prizes for ransom.
In the distance, a rumbling backdrop of cyberwar, as nation-states jockey for advantage.
Enter you, the keyboard cowpoke.
What do you do to keep yourself and your community safe on the electronic frontier?
We are interested in proposals on any subject relevant to the fields of information security and hacking. That said, we would like to encourage proposals on subjects relevant to the theme, such as:
- hacktivism
- information security and reproductive health in the post-Roe era
- opting out of surveillance capitalism
- privacy & data protection
- free and open source software (FOSS)
- darknets
- peer-to-peer applications & networks
- operational security (opsec)
- open source intelligence gathering (OSINT)
- cryptography
- cryptocurrency
- threat modeling
- cybercrime & law
- countervailing needs of financial security, privacy, and transparency
- data persistence and integrity in adversarial environments
We are especially interested in soliciting proposals relevant to individuals, activists, community organizations, cooperatives, and not-for-profits. (That is to say, anything except for-profit corporations.)
Women, NBs, persons of color, and all others are encouraged to submit a proposal.
Please be as detailed as possible, including an outline if available. Proposals will be reviewed as anonymously as can be managed, so please do not include any identifying information in your proposal abstract. Proposals will be reviewed by a diverse panel of individuals from the infosec and hacking community.
Proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria (in rough order of importance):
- Thought and detail conveyed in the abstract
- Relevance to theme
- Originality
- Timeliness
- Accessibility (highly technical proposals are welcome, but should be approached in a way that offers value to a broader audience)
- Relevance to local infosec community
| Tip! We only have about 5 hours of conference runtime. Proposals for concise and engaging talks (i.e., 10 min or 30 min formats) will have a greater chance of being selected. We may also reach out and ask if you’d be willing to distill a talk for a shorter format. |
To submit your proposal:
- Send an email to bsidescambridgeMA[@]proton[.]me
- Use the subject line:
SESSION PROPOSAL 2024 - Please include the following information in your email body:
- contact information (this will be masked for the Review Board)
- how you’d like to be called (i.e., name or pseudonym) + pronouns
- social media handle
- email address
- proposal information
- Session Title
- Session Abstract / Synopsis <– THE MOST IMPORTANT PART
- contact information (this will be masked for the Review Board)
If you are interested in submitting a proposal, but don’t have a topic ready to go, send an email with the subject line: session --help and we will provide some suggestions for 10-30 min talk subjects that we think could be interesting.