In music, a “b-side” is a term from the days of vinyl records that refers to a secondary recording that is usually left out of an album. Security BSides was co-founded in 2009 by Jack Daniel, Chris Nickerson, and Mike Dahn after being rejected from a DefCon event. These professionals wanted to create more opportunities for researchers and professionals to share their ideas, outside of the larger, expensive conferences.
Now Security BSides is a framework utilized internationally by a network of loosely affiliated conferences, each unique in their personality but united in their cause: make the sharing of information accessible and fun.