VIP “Extreme / Ultimate” Electronic Badge
Our limited VIP badge gets you into a ridiculous-but-awesome pre-event dinner on Tuesday night. It is a great way to meet people, hang out early, and start the week with the right crowd.

Digital / PCB / Electronic Badge
This pass gets you into everything on Wednesday and Thursday, plus the electronic blinkie badge. This is the one you want.

Analog / Plastic Pass
This gets you in the door for all Wednesday and Thursday conference activities. Simple, solid, and still very much CypherCon.

We also offer student discounts, options for tax-exempt organizations and government attendees, and unemployed / underemployed grant requests.

Please scroll to the bottom of the registration page for details.

We indeed offer student discounts, options for tax-exempt organizations and government attendees, and unemployed / underemployed grant requests.

Please scroll to the bottom of the registration page for details.

If you are looking for bulk discounts of 10 or more tickets, please Contact Us

We have your ticket purchase on record. We do not mail anything, and we do not send emails beyond an automated receipt, which may have gone to your spam folder. You can redeem merchandise at the registration or merchandise area during the event. You may need an ID at registration to claim your pass/badge.

We understand that cost can be a barrier, especially after early bird pricing has ended.

If CypherCon is outside your budget, we encourage you to check out our sister event, BSidesMKE, held the day after CypherCon, with tickets starting at $50.

We also believe financial constraints should not prevent people from being part of the CypherCon community. If cost is an issue, please submit a grant request on the registration page to ask about available scholarship options, including 50%, 75%, and 90% discounts.

If a grant is approved, there are no obligations or conditions attached.

We review grant requests based on available event funding and will do our best to help you attend and participate in the conference.

Sorry, we are not able to offer refunds. CypherCon has a strict no-refund policy.

That said, if you are unable to attend, we may be able to help connect you with an eager student or community member who would be grateful to attend in your place as a donated ticket.

Our no-refund policy states:

Any and all payments made to CypherCon are not refundable for any reason, including, without limitation, failure to use credentials due to illness, change in attendance availability, acts of God, travel-related problems, acts of terrorism, government shutdowns of any kind, loss of employment, and/or duplicate purchases, unless event insurance is activated and contributes to reimbursement.

CypherCon also reserves the right to revoke tickets and event access for any reason. Please be respectful, follow event rules, and help keep the community welcoming.

If you are considering a chargeback, reversal, or blocked transaction, please contact us first. Attempts to reverse or block a submitted transaction without contacting us may result in loss of access to future CypherCon events and related community events.

Ouch. We can help refund the duplicate order or correct the tax-exempt issue.

Please note that our payment processor charges CypherCon a processing fee of 3.0% + $0.30, and that fee is not returned to us when an order is refunded.

If the issue was caused by our system, we will absorb that fee.

If the issue was caused by duplicate ordering, forgetting to use a tax-exempt option, or another purchaser-side mistake, we may ask you to cover the processing fee so CypherCon is not charged for the refund.

If you choose the wrong option for tax-exempt and want to resubmit without tax, we get hit with too many fees. The “Tax” now becomes a “Service Charge or Final Bottom Line Price” – We will provide an updated receipt.

Please contact us with your order details and we will help get it sorted.

Unfortunately we do not have the ability to keep inventory or ship badges out if you are unable to pick up the device in person UNLESS you ask us 3 weeks prior to your purchase.

CypherCon 10 will be held March 24–25, 2027 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Baird Center.

Pre-conference workshops will take place on Monday and Tuesday, with BSidesMKE following on Friday. Together, we call the week Hacker Spring Break, also known as InfoSec Spring Break.

The full agenda and schedule will be announced soon.

All dates, times, and details are subject to change.

CypherCon exists to bring together hackers, builders, defenders, researchers, privacy advocates, students, leaders, and curious people who want to understand technology more deeply.

Our roots are in cryptography, hacker culture, privacy, and information security. From the beginning, the goal has been to create a place where people can openly exchange ideas, learn from each other, challenge assumptions, and help move the industry forward.

We believe in curiosity, public education, strong cryptography, privacy, ethical research, and responsible disclosure. CypherCon does not support illegal or harmful activity. We are here to celebrate the positive side of hacker culture: exploration, creativity, problem-solving, community, and integrity.

CypherCon is also about preserving and evolving hacker culture. It is a place for talks, hands-on learning, puzzles, competitions, strange ideas, practical knowledge, and the kind of conversations that do not always happen in a traditional corporate conference setting.

Over time, our themes have helped tell that story:

Years 1–5 focused on seizing the moment, building the community, and embracing the present.

Years 6–10 explore choices, consequences, uncertainty, and the different paths technology and people can take.

Recent themes include:

2023: Underground Singularity
AI operating beneath the surface, sometimes without human awareness.

2024: Casino Heist
Risk, deception, strategy, and the thrill of beating complex systems.

2025: Fate or No Fate
A look at destiny, control, and how much power we really have over the future.

2026: Remember when the internet was fun? I do.
A tribute to the weird, creative, playful internet many of us grew up with, and a reminder that technology should still inspire curiosity and wonder.

2027: We don’t need no thought control

What do you think that will entail? 🙂

At its core, CypherCon exists because people need a place to find their community, share what they know, learn what they do not, and keep hacker culture alive, ethical, welcoming, and fun.

CypherCon goes way beyond a lineup of talks, although that is impressive with over 5 tracks and 125 talks! The event is a hands-on, hallway-conversation, puzzle-solving, badge-hacking, community-driven technology and cybersecurity event.

Attendees can explore speaker tracks, join casual discussions, meet new people, visit sponsors, compete in challenges, and spend time in our specialty areas called wards. Wards are volunteer-led spaces focused on hands-on learning, demos, experiments, and hacker specializations.

Depending on the year, you may find things like:

• Technical talks on cybersecurity, AI, privacy, hacking, leadership, risk, compliance, forensics, cryptography, cloud, IoT, ICS, and more
• Hands-on wards covering areas like locks, safes, hardware hacking, soldering, OSINT, radio, puzzles, social engineering, and other hacker skills
• Badge hacking with the electronic / PCB conference badge
• Capture the Flag competitions and other security challenges
• Community-built puzzles, mystery games, and story-driven experiences
• Contests, mini-events, demos, and hallway activities
• Networking with hackers, builders, defenders, students, executives, researchers, and vendors
• Sponsor exhibits with tools, swag, demos, and conversations
• Social events, afterparties, and plenty of weird CypherCon energy

The main focus is technology, cybersecurity, hacking, and hacker culture, but CypherCon is intentionally broad. You can come to learn, compete, explore, make friends, discover a new skill, or just wander into something strange and interesting.

Decide whether you want to hack the badge, solve puzzles, sit in talks, join a competition, visit the wards, or meet your people, there is something at CypherCon for you. There are no “Wrong” paths 🙂

At CypherCon, a ward is a hands-on specialty area run by volunteers, creators, and community members who want to share a specific hacker skill, topic, or subculture.

Think of CypherCon as a conference made up of smaller mini-conferences. Each ward has its own personality, focus, and experience run by amazing independent and passionate individuals. Some are built around learning. Some are built around challenges. Some are built around demos, puzzles, contests, or just giving people a place to explore something new.

The name ward is also a nod to Milwaukee. Like the city’s historic neighborhoods and wards, including the famous Third Ward, each CypherCon ward has its own culture, character, and community.

A ward might focus on things like locks, safes, hardware hacking, soldering, radio, OSINT, puzzles, social engineering, privacy, retro tech, or other hacker specialties.

Wards are where you can try something hands-on, meet people who are passionate about the same things, learn from practitioners, and discover parts of hacker culture you may not have experienced before.

Explore the wards, find your people, learn something weird, and maybe leave with a new obsession.

CypherCon presentations are intentionally diverse. Some are deeply technical, some are strategic, some are creative, and some are just weird in the best possible way.

You can expect talks on topics like cryptography, cipher puzzles, corporate and network security, privacy, personal rights and freedoms, modern exploit techniques, security philosophy, hardware hacking, forensics, reverse engineering, protocol analysis, AI, risk, compliance, leadership, and emerging technology.

Because CypherCon is rooted in hacker culture, the presentations often mix technical depth with curiosity, storytelling, humor, and a little bit of chaos. A talk might teach you how an attack works, challenge how you think about security, walk through real-world lessons, or explore the strange edges of technology and culture.

The community also goes beyond traditional cybersecurity topics. Past and future sessions may touch on unexpected subjects like mushroom cultivation, dark skies, maker culture, puzzles, privacy, art, or other areas where curiosity and experimentation overlap with hacker thinking.

CypherCon is flexible by design. You can spend the day in technical talks, follow leadership and risk topics, explore hands-on areas, solve puzzles, or never touch a computer at all and simply relax, socialize, and meet the community.

In short: expect a broad mix of security, technology, cypherpunk ideas, hacker culture, practical knowledge, strange rabbit holes, and presentations that do not always fit neatly into a corporate conference box.

We officially direct our attendees to Discord.

We would love to have you! Discord is at https://discord.gg/VfNezRYkrY – This is where you’ll get the latest updates 🙂

Yes. Absolutely. We hope you do visit!!!

Everyone is welcome at CypherCon. You do not need to be a professional hacker, cybersecurity expert, programmer, or technical wizard to attend. If you are curious, creative, interested in how things work, or just want to learn something new, you belong here.

At CypherCon, “hacker” is not about breaking the law. It is about curiosity, exploration, problem-solving, creativity, and understanding systems. People define the word differently, and that is part of the culture. You are welcome to show up as yourself, learn at your own pace, and explore whatever interests you.

Come for the talks, puzzles, wards, badge hacking, competitions, hallway conversations, social events, or just to meet interesting people. You can participate as much or as little as you want.

CypherCon is shaped by the community, and if you are reading this, you are invited to be part of it.

Anyone in good standing with CypherCon and the broader community may attend. CypherCon reserves the right to deny access or remove anyone from the event for any reason.

CypherCon has no age limits. Adults are ultimately responsible to decide if this community is appropriate for their children. Feel free to contact us for further details in your discussion process.

Yes. CypherCon is committed to providing an accessible and welcoming event experience for attendees with disabilities.

We work to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and to support reasonable accessibility accommodations whenever possible. This may include assistance related to mobility, visual, hearing, sensory, or other accessibility needs.

If you have an accessibility request, some requests we may need at least one month before the event so we have enough time to review your needs and coordinate appropriate accommodations with our team and venue.

For more details, please review our event policies at:

cyphercon.com/policies

Have a specific request? Contact us and we will do our best to help.

No. CypherCon is an independent community-driven event, and sponsorship does not control the agenda, speaker selection, talks, wards, competitions, or conference content.

To protect the independence of the event, CypherCon follows these sponsorship guidelines:

• Sponsors cannot control or influence the agenda.
• Sponsorship does not guarantee an independents speaking slot.
• Sponsorship does not prevent a company or individual from submitting a talk.
• Product pitches, sales demos, and marketing presentations are not accepted as general conference talks. (only speaker demos)
• Speaker selection is based on content quality, relevance, and value to the local community.

CypherCon also does not sell, share, or provide general attendee lists to sponsors. (some rare exceptions apply)

We value attendee privacy. Contact information may only be shared under the conditions described in our policies at:

cyphercon.com/policies

In some cases, we may ask attendees whether they are willing to share contact information with sponsors or partners. That choice should be clear, optional, and controlled by the attendee.

Our goal is simple: Sponsors help make CypherCon possible, however they do not decide what CypherCon is.

We recommend staying at a hotel in our hotel blocks found at https://cyphercon.com/travel

The Hilton Milwaukee has been our primary recommendation, please use our block.

Hotels in our block with less than a month of the event are likely sold out, meaning you are on your own.

Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns regarding hotel options.

If you are looking for a premium place to stay. We recommend the historic hotel downtown Milwaukee called The Pfister Hotel. The Pfister Hotel happened to be the venue for our first year.

TL;DR: We care about your privacy. Privacy is a core expectation at CypherCon and within hacker culture. Many attendees use handles instead of real names, and we do our best to respect that.

CypherCon collects information needed to run the event, manage registration, communicate with attendees, and keep the conference safe and organized. We make a good-faith effort to inform you how we use your information, protect attendee information, and treat it responsibly.

Photos and video may be taken during the event, but only by authorized individuals wearing approved press badges or otherwise approved by CypherCon leadership. If you have privacy concerns related to photography, media, your name, your badge, or your attendance, please contact us and we will do our best to work with you.

Please review our full policies here: cyphercon.com/policies

Still worried? Reach out to us. We can usually figure something out.

No, maybe bring a laptop for challenges? Honestly, the best answer is to ask in discord what other gear they recommend!