What is the NorthSec Conference?

NorthSec covers the full spectrum of applied security. We try to take a practical approach to covering security topics, so we very much like talks that feature demos and/or working PoCs and/or open source tool releases. We do not accept talks that are essentially sales pitches for commercial products, nor do we accept sponsored talks. We greatly prefer practical presentations that are based on open source tools rather than commercial/proprietary counterparts. If you are presenting a practical guide to using a tool or set of tools, consider submitting a workshop proposal instead of a talk!

Topics we love:

Application & Infrastructure Security: Got talks about about pentesting, network security, software and/or hardware exploitation, web hacking, reverse engineering, malware/rootkits, or anything low-level that makes your personal clock tick? We’re here for it! The conference is followed by a 48h CTF — if your talk or workshop can be “weaponized” in this event, we’d like to know!

Cryptography & Obfuscation: From theoretical cryptosystems to applied cryptography exploitation, steganography, covert communication systems, and how to break all of the above, we’d like to hear from you!

Society, law & ethics: Technical subjects are at the core of the security field, but they also exist in a world of humans, affected by their social environment & political context. If you’ve got something great to say about the social implications of privacy, security, censorship, etc. this is the place for you.

Something we forgot? Not sure if your talk fits? Got a great subject that you think would appeal to our audience? Write us an email at conference@nsec.io and we’ll give you feedback!

Before applying, make sure to read our Code of conduct

En français

While NorthSec has always been and will continue to be a primarily English-language event, this year, we will also be accepting a number of talks and workshops in French. French talks will be grouped together into a schedule block.

CFP logistics

Timeline

• CFP Opened;
• January 31st, 1st round of the CFP closes;
• March 15th, 2nd round of the CFP closes;

Why submit during round 1? About 2/3 of the talks will be chosen during round 1. Since NorthSec is a generalist event, later rounds of the CFP will be focused on getting talks to fill gaps left by round 1. So if you submit a an amazing proposal during round 2, but it's on a topic that is already broadly covered by talks selected during round 1, you might get rejected.

Event Format

The event format is subject to change based on evolving public health guidelines.

We will be back at the Marché Bonsecours (our 2024 and earlier CTF venue), with some tweaks.

We will have one track of talks only, and a huge community space for collaborative projects, art, and asynchronous workshops. We will also have a few dedicated synchronous workshops (2hrs).

We will also be livestreaming the talks

Talks

Talks will be 30 minutes long.

As in 2024, we will be grouping some talks into thematic blocks and hosting discussions and audience Q&A with all speakers from the thematic block together. Not all talks are part of a thematic block, only when it fits.

A block will consist of:
Multiple (2-4) thematically related talks
A shared moderated discussion and Q&A.

Speakers will know in advance who will be part of their block, and will be connected to the moderator and other speakers in their track in advance of their presentation. The moderator will be a subject matter expert who will be able to guide the conversation. The audience will have a chance to submit questions and upvote other participants' questions during the talks.

The tracks listed are just a suggestion. Feel free to not choose one. The conference team will take care of grouping your talk appropriately.

We will in all likelihood be streaming talks live on a popular streaming platform (or several). Audience comments will be allowed and heavily moderated by both bots and humans.

Community Room (Villages)

Again this year, we are creating a Community Room. We want to fill it with community projects, exhibits, mini-CTFs, and even art.

All creative organizations, communities, artistic movements, or anything related to the digital world is welcome.

If it's hands-on, encourages participation, and fits our ethos, we want it!

We can give you one or more tables, for a flexible amount of time. Please give us some details of what you need and we'll figure it out together.

First time speakers

If you are a first time speaker, please let us know! We'd like to devise an initiative to mentor first-time speakers in advance of the event.

Being a speaker

Travel & accommodations

We have a limited budget for speaker travel and accommodations. If your employer is not in a position to sponsor your travel, the CFP process will guide you through specifying your needs. We will do our best to make sure speakers can make the trip!

You need to tell us in advance and provide an estimate of the costs before we accept the expense.

Perks

As a speaker, you get an entry to both the conference and competition (with an unranked speaker team), for you. You will also be invited to a speakers’ dinner, and much more!

You can enter proposals until 2025-03-16 06:00 (America/Toronto), 3 months, 1 week from now.