Pwn2Own, ShmooCon security conferences postponed due to COVID-19 surge
Two more security conferences have been postponed in the face of a rising wave of COVID-19 infections.
ShmooCon, a conference initially scheduled to be held on January 14-16 was postponed to March 24-26, while S4, the security conference that hosts the Pwn2Own ICS hacking contest, has announced plans to reschedule its initial January 25-27 event to a date later this spring.
#Pwn2Own Miami will also be postponed until #S4x22 can be rescheduled. We will update specific dates once we have them. We still look forward to seeing everyone in Miami this year. https://t.co/Zqif6c7wgS
— Zero Day Initiative (@thezdi) January 4, 2022
The two announcements come after RSA Conference, one of the largest cybersecurity events of the year, moved its February event to June, citing similar concerns in regards to the rising number of new COVID-19 infections.
Other security conferences are also expected to make similar announcements in the coming weeks, in the tone of what happened in early 2020, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when more than 50 security conferences had to cancel, reschedule, or move events to virtual formats.
US-based conferences are expected to reshuffle initial plans as the country is going through a rough spike, with US authorities reporting nearly one million COVID-19 cases on Monday, setting a new global record for most COVID-19 cases reported in a single day, nearly double the previous number.
Catalin Cimpanu
is a cybersecurity reporter who previously worked at ZDNet and Bleeping Computer, where he became a well-known name in the industry for his constant scoops on new vulnerabilities, cyberattacks, and law enforcement actions against hackers.