Conference Description
Key Takeaways
- Community-driven cybersecurity conference taking place in Zadar, Croatia on September 11, 2026
- Technical focus spanning offensive and defensive security, threat intelligence, incident response, and application security
- Designed for security practitioners, researchers, penetration testers, and incident responders
- Vendor-neutral presentations emphasising practical knowledge and real-world experience
- 2026 programme includes sessions on cloud security, phishing, threat hunting, and PDF vulnerabilities
Introduction
BSides Zadar 2026 brings together cybersecurity professionals for a day of technical presentations and community exchange in Croatia. The conference serves security practitioners, researchers, and technical professionals seeking substantive discussion of current threats and defensive strategies. With the threat landscape continuing to evolve rapidly and organisations facing increasingly sophisticated attacks, events that prioritise practical knowledge over commercial messaging provide valuable opportunities for capability development.
About BSides Zadar
BSides Zadar operates as a non-profit, volunteer-run conference organised by members of the security community. The event takes place on September 11, 2026, at Kazalište lutaka Zadar. Following the broader BSides model established internationally, the conference maintains a vendor-neutral stance, selecting talks based on technical substance and practical relevance rather than commercial considerations.
The programme accommodates different presentation formats, including standard talks, shorter sessions, and lightning presentations. This structure allows speakers to share detailed technical research alongside focused discussions of specific tools or techniques.
Technical Topics and Discussion Areas
The conference covers a broad spectrum of cybersecurity disciplines, reflecting the diverse challenges facing modern security teams. Offensive security topics include vulnerability analysis, penetration testing methodologies, and practical exploitation techniques. Defensive content addresses threat hunting, incident response workflows, and malware research.
The 2026 programme features sessions examining cyber intelligence practices, cloud security architecture, phishing attack patterns, and application security pipeline implementation. Technical deep-dives into PDF vulnerabilities demonstrate the conference’s emphasis on specific, actionable research. Additional subject areas span reverse engineering, cryptographic implementations, supply chain risk assessment, and DevSecOps integration.
Beyond purely technical matters, the conference addresses the broader context in which security work occurs, including privacy considerations, surveillance implications, and the legal and regulatory frameworks that shape organisational security programmes.
Building Regional Security Capability
BSides events have historically served an important function in developing local security communities, and BSides Zadar continues this tradition within the Croatian and broader regional context. The conference provides a platform for practitioners to share lessons learned from real-world incidents, discuss common operational challenges, and establish professional connections with peers working on similar problems.
For security teams operating with limited resources or in relative isolation, access to practitioner-led knowledge sharing can significantly accelerate capability development. The emphasis on honest discussion of failures and challenges, rather than polished success stories, distinguishes community conferences from more commercially oriented events.
Who Should Attend
The conference is designed for individuals engaged in hands-on security work across various organisational contexts. Security engineers, penetration testers, incident responders, threat analysts, and application security specialists will find relevant technical content. IT security managers seeking to understand current threats and defensive approaches may also benefit from the practitioner perspective offered.
Attendees typically represent technology companies, financial institutions, government agencies, academic institutions, and security consultancies. The event also welcomes students and newcomers to the field, providing exposure to current industry practices and community networking opportunities.
Supporting Organisations
BSides Zadar 2026 receives support from sponsors including ReversingLabs, Span, PentestPad, Fortuna Entertainment Group, InfoSecMap, Defensive Security, and Yubico. These organisations represent various segments of the security industry, from threat intelligence and penetration testing platforms to authentication hardware providers. The conference maintains its community focus while acknowledging the role sponsor support plays in enabling volunteer-run events.