Australian security community
Conferences, meetups and groups where Australians learn security in person. Dates and links checked, with a note on what is dormant.
Last updated
Security is easier to learn from people than from pages. This is a plain list of where Australians do that in person: the conferences, the free monthly meetups, and the bodies that run them.
Dates are as published at the date at the top of this page. Conferences move, and some quietly stop, so the link matters more than the date. Where something has stopped, it says so.
Conferences
AusCERT
The oldest of them, run by the University of Queensland’s incident response team. 19–22 May 2026, The Star Gold Coast, and its twenty-fifth year. Four days, tutorials included, and the audience is heavily practitioner and government.
Paid, and priced for an employer rather than an individual.
CrikeyCon
Brisbane, community-run, and the friendliest entry point in the country. 21 March 2026. Cheap tickets, a strong beginner track, and the kind of crowd that will happily explain something to you at the bar.
BSides
A global format run locally by volunteers, so each city has its own character. Australian events run in Ballarat, Brisbane, Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne; Ballarat is confirmed for 28 February – 1 March 2026.
Cheap, informal, and usually the best value for a first conference.
Australian Cyber Conference (CyberCon)
Run by AISA, the Australian Information Security Association. 14–16 October 2026, Melbourne. The largest of the Australian events and the most corporate: vendor floor, keynotes, professional development hours.
Meetups
Monthly, free or nearly free, and a lower commitment than a conference.
- Ruxmon meets in Melbourne on the last Friday of most months, 6:30pm, free. Two short talks from local speakers, then the pub. Run by the people behind Ruxcon, which has since wound up. meetup.com/ruxmon
- SecTalks runs chapters in several Australian cities. Format is usually a talk plus a capture-the-flag style challenge. sectalks.org
- OWASP chapters cover application and web security, with local groups in the larger cities. owasp.org/chapters
- AISA branch events run through the year in most states, separate from CyberCon. aisa.org.au
If you are not in security and never will be
You do not need any of this. It is here because the question comes up, and because a surprising number of people who now work in security started by turning up to a free meetup without knowing anything.
The rest of this site is written for you instead: start with types of malware or the quiz.
Common questions
Do I need to work in security to attend?
No. Community conferences like CrikeyCon and BSides are explicitly open to beginners, students and career changers, and tickets are cheap or free. The larger industry events cost more and skew corporate.