KWIPS, Kitchener-Waterloo Infosec and Privacy Salon, is a privacy and computer security group that is organized by Straithe and based in Kitchener-Waterloo. Each of our monthly meetings starts with a 30 to 45 minute presentation from a previous attendee (or invited guest) who has volunteered to speak. Speakers present on an open access academic paper (that is not their own work!) that is relevant to our groups’ interests of privacy and security. There is an hour+ after each presentation for attendees to socialize and meet other like-minded folks.
Meeting Details
KWIPS meetings happen on the third Monday of every month. The next three meetings are:
- October 19th, 2026:
- Presenter: Anonymity requested. Identity revealed at presentation.
- Paper: “Grid Shock: Coordinated Load-Changing Attacks on Power Grids”
- URL: https://ics.uci.edu/~dabrowsa/dabrowski-acsac17-gridshock-preprint.pdf
- November 16th, 2026 (Details TBD)
- December 21st, 2026 (Details TBD)
We don’t have a permanent location for KWIPS (yet). We post the location and presentation details here, and on our event page on Luma, once they have been decided. We do appreciate when folks sign up on Luma or email b@straithe.com to let us know if they will be attending so we can book a space big enough for the expected audience, but declaring attendance is not required.
We do require that all attendees mask, so please bring your own if possible. N95 or better preferred. If you do not have a mask, one will be provided.
Previous Presentations
Our previous presentations (in reverse date order) are:
- September 21, 2026:
- Presenter: Brittany “Straithe” Postnikoff
- Paper: “Experimental Security Analysis of a Modern Automobile”
- URL: https://feihu.eng.ua.edu/NSF_CPS/year1/w9_1.pdf
- August 17, 2026:
- Presenter: Michael Ossmann
- Paper: “GPS Software Attacks”
- URL: https://dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10.1145/2382196.2382245
Volunteering to Present
Any previous KWIPS attendee can email Straithe at b@straithe.com to volunteer to present. In your email please include your name, the title of the paper you want to present, and a link to the paper. Once your email is received, the paper is reviewed by Straithe, and, if your paper is a fit for KWIPS, Straithe will reach out to book you in. A couple of places you can find open access papers to present are https://petsymposium.org/popets/ and https://www.usenix.org/publications/proceedings.
Privacy Policy
- This website does not collect any data or have any trackers.
- Pictures are not taken of anyone at the event without their consent.
- The only data Straithe can see with Luma is your name and email address.
- Email addresses are not shared with any company, group, or person except for Straithe (and Luma if you submit your data to Luma).