Hacker Con Badges

BSides Cleveland

BSides Cleveland 2026

The completed September 26, 2026 BSides Cleveland conference at Case Western Reserve University's Tinkham Veale University Center. The official 2026 conference page marks the event Completed with Tickets Closed and thanks everyone who spoke, sponsored, volunteered, and attended BSidesCLE 2026. On October 6, 2026 the organization's Badge-2026 repository published CC0 KiCad files for a cassette-shaped attendee badge and a volunteer variant plus the designer's writeup; it does not state how many badges were made or how they were handed out.

Tinkham Veale University Center, Case Western Reserve University, 11038 Bellflower Road, Cleveland, Ohio · United States · 2026

BSides Cleveland 2026 Cassette Badge

The BSides Cleveland 2026 conference badge, published by the organizers on October 6, 2026 as CC0 KiCad designs: a cassette-tape-shaped, all-SMD coin-cell board in two variants. A Schmitt-trigger oscillator clocks a 74HC4017 decade counter that steps rings of orange, green, and blue LEDs, so the attendee cassette appears to play and the volunteer cassette appears to rewind. The back artwork hides a Vigenère-and-ROT13 easter egg that decodes to Hack The Planet. The September 26 event is officially completed, but no source gives a badge count or describes the handoff.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

BSides Cleveland 2026 Cassette Badge designer-documented easter egg

badge puzzle

Hack The Planet artwork cipher

A message hidden in the back artwork was encrypted with a Vigenère cipher keyed ClevelandBsides, then ROT13, then reversed, with spaces kept between words; the key is on the badge itself, and the writeup's spoiler gives the plaintext as Hack The Planet.

Compatibility: BSides Cleveland 2026 Cassette Badge artwork

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

BSides Cleveland 2026 Cassette Badge note

distribution and quantity gap · organizer repository and official event page · design and fabrication documented; handoff unpublished

The writeup says PCBWay fabricated, printed, and assembled the units and the official page marks the event completed, but no source states how many attendee or volunteer badges were made, whether every attendee received one, or whether the files are the exact production revision.

The record treats the badge as a real event artifact without asserting attendee-wide allocation or a unit count.

Resources

BSides Cleveland 2026 badge writeup designer writeup · Designer Anthony G.'s notes on the cassette brief, the play and rewind LED patterns, the logic parts, all-SMD construction, UV-printed artwork, PCBWay fabrication and assembly, ChatGPT-generated back artwork, and the easter-egg hints with spoiler. Badge-2026 licence license · CC0 1.0 Universal dedication covering the repository's design files and writeup. It does not provide a badge photograph, so no image is published. BSidesCLE/Badge-2026 official badge repository · Repository in the BSidesCLE organization, created August 20, 2026 and filled on October 6, 2026 with the attendee and volunteer KiCad projects, custom footprints for the cassette outline, LED rings, and lanyard holes, component libraries, and the designer writeup. BSides Cleveland 2026 on Sessionize official call for sessions · Organizer call-for-sessions listing giving the 26 Sep 2026 date, the CWRU venue, and the BSides Cleveland Board of Directors as organizer. BSides Cleveland 2026 conference page official event page · Official conference page for September 26, 2026 at the Tinkham Veale University Center, Case Western Reserve University. The October 15, 2026 check found it marked Completed with Tickets Closed and the line Thanks to everyone who spoke, sponsored, volunteered, and attended BSidesCLE 2026. See you next year! It does not mention the badge. Attendee badge schematic schematic · KiCad schematic for the attendee play variant with the 74AUP1G14 oscillator, 74AUP1G74 flip-flop, 74HC4017 counter, BAT54C power-up reset network, LEDs, MOSFET, switch, and CR2032 holder. Volunteer badge schematic schematic · KiCad schematic for the volunteer rewind variant, sharing the oscillator, flip-flop, and counter design without the attendee BAT54C reset network.

Sources

Anthony G. / BSidesCLE GitHub: Making a event badge Retrieved 2026-10-15 · Primary designer source for the two variants and their play and rewind patterns, the counter, flip-flop, and timer parts, the coin-cell power choice, all-SMD construction, UV silkscreen front and back, PCBWay fabrication and assembly, the ChatGPT-generated back artwork, and the Vigenère, ROT13, and reversal easter egg. BSides Cleveland / Sessionize: BSides Cleveland 2026 call for sessions Retrieved 2026-10-15 · Organizer-maintained listing corroborating the date, venue, and organizer. Security BSides Cleveland: BSidesCLE 2026 Conference Retrieved 2026-10-15 · Primary official source for the September 26, 2026 date, the CWRU Tinkham Veale University Center venue, and the post-event Completed status and thank-you that mark the edition completed. It does not mention the badge. Security BSides Cleveland / GitHub: Badge-2026 Retrieved 2026-10-15 · Primary organizer artifact source describing itself as assets and resources related to our 2026 conference badge, with the CC0 attendee and volunteer KiCad designs pushed October 6, 2026. It does not state a production count or describe distribution.