EFF is excited to attend CypherCon! We'll be at the conference with an info booth, so be sure to stop by and chat with some of our team and learn about the latest developments in defending digital freedom for all. You can even pick up a special gift as a token of our thanks when you take advantage of our membership specials or donate!

OPSEC For Liberation Movements: Field Notes from 2025

Throughout 2025, countless activists and human rights defenders felt an increased urgency of tech-enabled violences that they face. The Electronic Frontier Foundation often lends these folks much needed OPSEC advice, strengthened by the Surveillance Self-Defense guides it has published for 17 years. Daly Barnett, a senior staff technologist at the EFF, presents her field notes and takeaways from the trainings and consulting sessions she held in 2025 for over 1000 activists and human rights defenders, primarily those focused on issues of abortion access and transgender rights. Elevated threat models require unique and advanced mitigation strategies. Come hear about how these activists are staying resilient against living under the most sophisticated surveillance systems in all of human history.
Hexagon Track @ 12:30 PM on Wednesday, April 1
Senior Staff Technologist Daly Barnett

More about CypherCon:
CypherCon is the largest technology conference in the state of Wisconsin with over 1750 attendees. We are an annual hacker conference that acts more like a cybersecurity summit. We have our event every year downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Baird Center. Presentations topics include Cyphers, Hacking, Information Security, Cryptography, Forensics, and other hacker, cypherpunk, and cyberpunk oriented topics.  We also offer presentations for career development, security leadership, AI, IoT, ICS, risk and compliance, and more!