OWASP Ottawa
Hello Ottawa and the World, Welcome to your OWASP Ottawa Chapter!
Who We Are
We are a place to meet local developers and information security professionals, share ideas, and learn.
You will find us informal, approachable, and thankful for your assistance. We encourage and welcome beginners. We are an open, tolerant, and inclusive organisation that accepts all races, genders, creeds, abilities, things, and ideas with the exception of one - Hate: Hate has no home at OWASP Ottawa.
OWASP Ottawa events are completely free. We will never charge for access to any of our events.
What We Do
We provide a mix of InfoSec talks, hands on training sessions, and special interest discussion groups. We hold monthly meetups at the STEM Building of the University of Ottawa. We hold occassional workshops on a variety of security topics.
We are always looking for new ideas for events so let us know if you have an idea.
You can submit an idea at any point in time at the following link:
OWASP Ottawa Speaker Submission Form 2024.
For updates, events, membership; please visit our meetup page: OWASP Ottawa Meetup
Volunteers
OWASP Ottawa would not function without the generous support of time and effort from our volunteers. If you would like to get more involved we would love to have your help.
Contact us on any of our socials or Slack if you wish to volunteer.
Chapter Supporters
Currently Scheduled Events
Connect with us on Social Media and on Slack
- Register for OWASP Ottawa Slack via this Slack link
- Follow us on Twitter: @OWASP_Ottawa
- Follow us on Mastodon: @[email protected]
- Follow us on Bluesky: @owaspottawa.bsky.social
- Follow us on LinkedIn: OWASP Ottawa LinkedIN page
Watch our past Talks
Next Meeting/Event(s)
OWASP Ottawa Chapter upcoming events can be found on Meetup:
https://www.meetup.com/OWASP-Ottawa/
Thursday October 9th, 2025
Details
Welcome to our in-Person Meetup at the University of Ottawa
In-Person Location: 150 Louis-Pasteur Private, Ottawa, University of Ottawa Room 117
We will continue to Live Stream on our YouTube channel. (https://www.youtube.com/@OWASP_Ottawa). Subscribe to our YouTube channel, set a reminder and you’ll get a notification as soon as we go live!
YouTube Live Stream Link: TBA
6:00 PM EST Arrival, setup, mingle, PIZZA!!! 6:30 PM EST Technical Talks
- Introduction to OWASP Ottawa, Public Announcements.
- “Secure Code Is Critical Infrastructure - Hacking Policy for the Public Good” with Tanya Janca
Abstracts:
Title: Secure Code Is Critical Infrastructure - Hacking Policy for the Public Good What happens when a security professional tries to help a government fix its insecure software? In this talk, I’ll share my story: from writing a secure coding policy and offering it to the Canadian government, lobbying elected officials, contacting agencies like CRA about their poor security practices—and being met with silence, deflection, or outright dismissal. I didn’t stop there. I wrote public letters, went on podcasts, published on Risky Biz, even got interviewed by CBC. But the institutions in charge of protecting our data? Either silence or “No comment, because security.” This isn’t just a rant—it’s a roadmap. I’ll show you the secure coding guideline I created (free to reuse), explain why governments need public-facing AppSec policies, and outline how we can push for secure-by-default practices as citizens, hackers, and builders. Because secure code isn’t just for dev teams—it’s for democracy, privacy, and public safety. Let’s make it law. Let’s make it public.
Speakers:
Tanya Janca aka SheHacksPurple, is the best-selling author of ‘Alice and Bob Learn Secure Coding’ and ‘Alice and Bob Learn Application Security’. She is currently the CEO and secure coding trainer at She Hacks Purple Consulting. Over her 28-year IT career she has won countless awards (including OWASP Lifetime Distinguished Member and Hacker of the Year), spoken all over the planet, and is a prolific blogger. Tanya has trained thousands of software developers and IT security professionals, via her online academies (We Hack Purple and Semgrep Academy), and her live training programs. Having performed counter-terrorism, led security for the 52nd Canadian general election, developed or secured countless applications, Tanya Janca is widely considered an international authority on the security of software.
Advisor: Smithy, Katilyst Board Member: Forte Group Founder: We Hack Purple, OWASP DevSlop, #CyberMentoringMonday, WoSEC
If you are coming into town by car to attend a meetup then you may have questions about parking. Below is a Ottawa University Campus parking map:
Alternatively, you can try your luck on street parking in Sandy Hill or in the Triangle on the other side of the canal (you can cross over using the Corkstown pedestrian bridge).
Even better, use the train as there is a station on campus.
Chapter Supporters
The following are the list of organizations that have generously supported the Ottawa Chapter:
How to Support OWASP Ottawa
Financially
Specifying OWASP Ottawa in your donation helps support OWASP and the Ottawa Chapter to provide quality security education.
- Browse to https://owasp.org/ottawa
- Click the green Donate button to the top right.
- Select an amount.
- Click “Publicly list me as a support of OWASP Ottawa”.
- Enter your details.
- Prove to a robot, that you are not a robot.
- Provide payment information.
Other ways to Support OWASP Ottawa
There are other ways you can support the chapter. These can include:
- SWAG.
- Food or Beverages at events.
- Security content.
Contact us for more details.