ShaktiCon, one of India’s leading cybersecurity conferences dedicated to empowering women in the field, was conducted on May 4 & 5 2024.

With over a 2300 registrants from 45 countries, the dual events of ShaktiCTF ethical hacking contest and Shakticon conference brought together industry experts, thought leaders for Government and International forums, and enthusiasts to foster knowledge sharing, networking, and empowerment within the cybersecurity community. “It was our Chancellor, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi’s vision to promote diversity and inclusion that resulted in ShaktiCon & ShaktiCTF, two platforms for women to showcase their expertise, share insights, and advance their careers in the rapidly evolving field of cybersecurity” said Dr. P. Venkat Rangan, Vice Chancellor, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham.

ShaktiCTF, cybersecurity ethical hacking contest just for women was conducted over a span of 4 months and in three rounds preceding the Shakticon conference. One of the highlights of the conference was the stellar lineup of speakers from 7 countries including Germany, Egypt, Israel, USA, S. Korea, Denmark and India who inspired and empowered attendees with their expertise and experiences.

One of the speakers at the event, Ms. Ashwini Siddhi, Director, Product Security Engineering, GoDaddy, said “I went to inspire aspiring security professionals, came back inspired myself.” – Ashwini Siddhi, Director, Product Security Engineering, GoDaddy. This is the third edition of the conference and hackathon exclusively for women. Devika Ranjan, Pentester at a startup said “This is one of the best events in Cybersecurity I have been to. I was able to gauge my strengths and weaknesses during ShaktiCTF. Another participant Ms. Saisudha said “The networking opportunities and interactive sessions were quite effective and helped me connect with peers and experts”.

The worldwide participation has grown significantly over the years and the dual events have had a significant impact of women which in turn support several sustainable development goals, said founder of ShaktiCon and ShaktiCTF events, Prof. Vipin Pavithran, Cybersecurity Systems and Network Centre, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham.

The conference also featured several interactive workshops and touched on several emerging such as LLM security, AI and security, evolving attack landscape of Cyberphysical systems, threat intelligence, data privacy, amongst others.