With SecTor 2024 (October 22 to October 24 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre [MTCC]) quickly approaching, we wanted to take this time to bring your attention to all things SecTor, including what the name "SecTor" is shortened (or abbreviated) from, when it first began, what attendees can expect, as well as how SecTor officially became an important event in Black Hat's global portfolio. To find out more on the history behind SecTor, be sure to read on.
Image features one of the Keynote presentations during SecTor 2023.
Background on SecTor:
Founded in 2007, SecTor is Canada's largest cybersecurity conference, and has continued to bring relevant, engaging, and reputable content for the benefit of the Canadian cybersecurity community for nearly two decades. Since SecTor is a security conference, it is common to think that "SecTor" stands for "Security Toronto," but it actually stands for "Security Education Conference Toronto," which is shortened to "SecTor."
While this does speak to some of SecTor's history, this doesn't quite answer how SecTor became one of the Black Hat events. For this, it's important to share more information on the original founders of SecTor and why they created SecTor.
Brian Bourne and Bruce Cowper are the co-founders of SecTor, and they created the event after regularly attending Black Hat USA. They recognized the need and opportunity to bring together the top cybersecurity researchers from around the world to Canada, not only to help bring the latest in security education to Canada, but also to showcase both Canadian talent and perspective.
Image features Bruce Cowper (left) and Brian Bourne (right) speaking on stage during SecTor 2023.
SecTor joins Black Hat:
Over the years, SecTor continued to grow in popularity, serving the Canadian market and growing to become Canada's premier IT Security Education Conference. With SecTor's focus on serving the cybersecurity community with groundbreaking research, it was a natural fit to be considered as a part of the Black Hat portfolio. In 2019, SecTor was purchased by the Black Hat parent company, Informa, and incorporated into Black Hat's global events portfolio. As part of the Black Hat portfolio, the event has expanded with new content programs and features. Today SecTor includes Briefings, an expanded Business Hall, a new Black Hat Arsenal program, an expanded Summit program, and much more.
Image features one of the Keynote Speakers presenting during SecTor 2023.
Image features one of the Keynote presentations during SecTor 2023.
Image features attendees at one of the networking receptions during SecTor 2023.
How does SecTor differ from other Black Hat events?
Today SecTor includes many of the same people and programs that made it Canada's premier IT Security Education Conference. Attendees can still expect to leave the event equipped with the very latest in cybersecurity research, as well as the chance to make new connections stemming from a variety of networking opportunities. And now as part of Black Hat, SecTor can draw much more from the global community of researchers to bring the latest insights and trends to the important Canadian market.
One of the goals behind all Black Hat events is to bring the community together in hopes that attendees will be able to utilize the knowledge and networking opportunities from the events to advance their professional growth and careers, and that is what attendees can also expect from SecTor, in addition to the unique opportunity to learn and engage directly with the Canadian cybersecurity community.
To view the current list of SecTor 2024 Briefings, please visit https://www.blackhat.com/sector/2024/briefings/schedule/index.html.
To view the Summits schedule, please visit https://www.blackhat.com/sector/2024/summit-sessions/schedule/index.html.
For more information and to register for SecTor 2024, please visit https://www.blackhat.com/sector/2024.
Top Sponsors and Partners of SecTor 2024 include:
For the most up-to-date list of SecTor 2024 Sponsors, please visit: https://www.blackhat.com/sector/2024/event-sponsors.html.