The payload may be encrypted, but the network still tells a story. Throughout 2025, the ELLIO team traveled to several BSides events, meeting security practitioners who work daily with noisy, complex, and often opaque network environments.
Each BSides had its own vibe and local flavor, but in our talks, we focused on network fingerprints – JA3, JA4, MuonFP, p0f – and how they can help teams see what’s happening on their networks, investigate incidents faster, and hunt threats more effectively. Vlad Iliushin, Head of Cybersecurity at ELLIO, walked through their value, limitations, and how to use them in practice, including combining them with IP threat intelligence.
Let’s look back at the top4 BSides events we attended, highlighting what we enjoyed most about each community and sharing the moments that stuck with us.
BSides NYC
Business energy ran through at the whole event.
- Website: https://bsidesnyc.org/
- Date & Venue: Every year in October, New York City
- Attendance & Stats: One day event, ~1,000+ attendees, 45+ hours of content, 58+ speakers across 5 parallel tracks (Tech, Red Team, Blue Team, Entrepreneur, Workshops), villages, and Capture The Flag challenges
The Bsides NYC 2025 covered a wide range of topics, from network security and ethical hacking to startup strategies in the cybersecurity space. The major focus was on cloud environments.
What we liked:
- In addition to the deep technical talks and hands-on workshops, there was also a separate ‘Entrepreneurship in Infosec’ track, packed with practical tips, lessons learned, and advice on marketing and sales for cybersecurity founders. No surprise – New York’s business energy really shone through at the conference.
- The schedule also made it easy to meet people, chat with peers, and make connections – plenty of chances to network and share experiences.
BSides Prague
The lightning talk had the afterparty in tears from laughing.
- Website: https://www.bsidesprg.cz
- Date & Venue: Every year in April, Prague
- Attendance & Stats: 2 days of content, ~500+ attendees, 33+ speakers, 1 main track + workshops, hacking village, and CTF
Every year, BSides Prague brings great talks, a cool venue, and electronic CTF badges that match the conference theme. In 2025, the theme was ‘Evolution to Revolution’, reminding attendees that big changes usually start with small before becoming game-changing.
What we liked:
It’s hard to be totally objective about this event. Jana Tom, ELLIO’s founder, helped start BSides Prague, and the organizers are longtime friends. Even so, there are plenty of reasons to genuinely love it!
- BSides Prague is one of the few cybersecurity events in the region that brings together advanced pros from global enterprises like SentinelOne, GEN, Eset, or Rapid7 with local MSPs, government teams, and students – a mix you don’t see very often.
- Organizer and sponsor partnerships feel natural, with branding that fits right in. Between the venue, schedule, and afterparty, it’s easy to meet people and hang out. The community vibe is strong.
BSides Las Vegas
Big event, but it still feels like a community.
- Website: https://bsideslv.org/
- Date & Venue: Every year in August, Las Vegas
- Attendance & Stats: 3 day of content, ~2500 attendees, 11 tracks, tons of side and evening events
BSides Las Vegas is one of the largest BSides events, happening during the same week as Black Hat and DEF CON, and offering a more community-focused, accessible space for learning and networking.
What we like:
- The schedule is packed with themed tracks – some for live feedback and participant interaction, others for carrier tips and job growth. You’ll also find sessions on public safety and critical infrastructure, or Skytalks with a strict ‘no recording’ rule.
- Shuttle services runs between The Tuscony (BSides Las Vegas’s venue) and DEF CON.
BSides San Francisco
Mix of technical talks with the startup energy of Silicon Valley.
- Website: https://bsidessf.org/
- Date & Venue: Every year in March/April, San Francisco
- Attendance & Stats: 2day content, ~2500 attendees, multiple tracks and villages, CTF
BSides SF, the original BSides event since 2009, mixes technical talks with the startup energy of Silicon Valley. Held just before RSAC, it’s the perfect spot to meet security pros who might skip the business-focused RSA conference.
What we like:
- Attendees were open to discuss and share insights. our talk about network fingerprints sparked more questions than at any other events we attended.
- The program offers the mix of deep technical talks and truly inspiring talks, His keynote speech on resilience and recovery from making wrong decisions by Wendy Nather, and ‘Not every groundbreaking ideas needs to become a billion-dollar startup’ takl by Ross Haleliuk, where he explored alternative paths and how niche markets and smaller ideas can drive impactful solutions without unicorn pressure.
About ELLIO
ELLIO (https://ellio.tech) is a research-driven cybersecurity lab with a strong focus on mass exploitation and reconnaissance activity.
ELLIO delivers IP-based threat intelligence, network fingerprints, and highly dynamic feeds for event prioritization and data enrichment across existing SIEM, SOAR, and other security tools. Beyond intelligence, ELLIO provides ultimate IP blocking for next-gen firewalls, a platform for centrally managing all multi-vendor blocklists and whitelists, and additional services such as network masking against scanners and eBPF-based filters that combine IP intelligence with modern network fingerprints to protect against active malicious and overly curious (promiscuous) traffic.
Enter the ELLIO Threat Platform and see mass exploitation and reconnaissance activity as they happen: https://platform.ellio.tech
