What Recon Village does

Recon Village is an annual community-driven event track (village) held at DEF CON, the world's largest hacker conference, dedicated exclusively to reconnaissance and Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). Founded in 2017 at DEF CON 25 in Las Vegas, the village curates technical talks, hands-on workshops, Capture The Flag (CTF) competitions, a Live Recon Contest, and a Geo-OSINT (GE(O)SINT) geolocation competition. Its audience consists of security researchers, penetration testers, bug bounty hunters, red teamers, and defensive security professionals who use OSINT as part of their methodology. The event has hosted over 100 speakers across nine annual editions and maintains an evergreen YouTube archive of past talks.

The organization is structured as a small (1-10 person) volunteer-driven entity with no institutional funding; it does not develop proprietary software products. Its core outputs are event programming (18-25 talks per year), competition infrastructure (CTF, Live Recon, GE(O)SINT contests with 40-270 participants per competition), and a curated tools showcase featuring well-known open-source OSINT projects such as Easy EASM, BBOT, OWASP Amass, SkipTracer, DorXNG, and DataSploit. The venue has evolved from Caesars Palace (DEF CON 25-26) to Hotel Linq + Experience (DEF CON 30-31) and now the Las Vegas Convention Center (DEF CON 32-34).

Recon Village operates on a sponsorship-based revenue model with no ticket revenue. Attendees access the village through DEF CON conference registration. Sponsorship tiers include Diamond, Gold, Silver, and Community, with sustaining sponsors RedHunt Labs (attack surface management) and Cato Networks (SASE), and a rotating roster of Diamond/Gold/Silver sponsors such as RiskProfiler, Bishop Fox, Digital Shadows (ReliaQuest), Synack, Bugcrowd, NotSoSecure, and SANS Institute. The organization is privately held, domiciled in the USA, with no parent company, no venture funding, and no disclosed acquisitions.

Name

Recon Village

Legal name

Recon Village

Website

https://reconvillage.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Recon Village is an annual community-driven village at DEF CON dedicated to OSINT and reconnaissance, featuring talks, workshops, CTFs, Live Recon, and GE(O)SINT contests for security researchers, penetration testers, and bug bounty hunters. It operates as a volunteer-run, sponsorship-funded event with no ticket revenue.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cybersecurity Community Events

NAICS

Convention and Trade Show Organizers (561920)

SIC

Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Virtual/Hybrid Conference Production & Platform Management (THAHACAM)

Keywords

• OSINT community events
• Cybersecurity village track
• Reconnaissance training programs
• Capture the flag contests
• Security research workshops

Headquarters

HQ city

Las Vegas

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Sponsorship Revenue: Recon Village operates through corporate sponsorships from cybersecurity companies. Sponsors include Diamond, Gold, Silver, and Community tiers, providing funding to support the event.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Recon Village is an open-space community event (village track) held at DEF CON that delivers talks, live demos, hands-on workshops, and Capture The Flag competitions focused on reconnaissance and Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). Its core deliverable is an annual in-person program — including technical talks, the OSINT CTF, the Live Recon Contest against real-world bug bounty targets, and the GE(O)SINT geolocation contest — together with an evergreen YouTube archive of past sessions. Attendees access the program through DEF CON registration at no separate fee, while the village is sustained by corporate sponsorships from cybersecurity vendors.

Product overview

Recon Village is an open-space village track at DEF CON dedicated to OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) and reconnaissance. The event features a portfolio of programs including Talks (technical presentations and workshops on reconnaissance methodologies), CTF competitions (jeopardy-style OSINT challenges), Live Recon contests (real-world target reconnaissance without exploitation), and GE(O)SINT contests (geolocation challenges). The village also showcases security tools. The core offering is educational and competitive programming rather than a traditional software product.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Recon Village Talks Annual program of technical talks and workshops on OSINT and reconnaissance methodologies, tools, and case studies, presented by security researchers and practitioners at DEF CON and archived on YouTube.
• OSINT Capture The Flag (CTF) Jeopardy-style OSINT and reconnaissance CTF in which participants solve challenges to earn points, testing their investigation and data-gathering skills.
• Live Recon Contest Hands-on live reconnaissance competition in which teams conduct OSINT against pre-registered companies within a specified scope, finding and reporting vulnerabilities without exploitation.
• GE(O)SINT Contest Geo-OSINT tournament in which participants identify locations from images using visual intelligence and Street View clues.

Quantifiable outcome

• 100+ speakers presented over 9+ years
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered high, minor and medium.

• RedHunt LabshighOthersSustaining Sponsor of Recon Village. RedHunt Labs is a 360° Attack Surface Management Company that has consistently supported the village as a long-term sponsor.
• Cato NetworkshighOthersSustaining Sponsor of Recon Village. Cato Networks provides a cloud-native SASE platform and has been a consistent supporter.
• TCPInfosecminorOthersLong-term supporter of Recon Village.
• Cyfinoid ResearchminorOthersLong-term supporter of Recon Village.
• CyberEyeminorOthersLong-term supporter of Recon Village.
• SecWiserminorOthersLong-term supporter of Recon Village.
• RiskProfilerhighOthersDiamond sponsor for DEF CON 32 (2024). Provides external attack surface management solutions.
• Bishop FoxhighOthersGold sponsor for DEF CON 30 (2022). Leading offensive security company.
• Digital Shadows (ReliaQuest)highOthersGold sponsor for DEF CON 30 (2022) and DEF CON 27 (2019). Provides digital risk protection solutions.
• SynackhighOthersGold sponsor for DEF CON 25 (2017). Premier security testing platform with PTaaS model.
• BugcrowdmediumOthersGold sponsor for DEF CON 27 (2019), Silver sponsor for DEF CON 26 (2018). Crowdsourced security platform.
• NotSoSecure (Claranet)mediumOthersGold sponsor for DEF CON 29 (2021), Silver sponsor for DEF CON 27 (2019). Part of Claranet Cyber Security providing application security training.
• SANS InstitutehighOthersCommunity sponsor for DEF CON 32 (2024). Leading cybersecurity training and certification organization.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• IoT Village: DEF CON village focused on IoT security, with hands-on demos and contests. Comparable as a topical DEF CON track run by community organizers with sponsorship support, though focused on IoT rather than OSINT/recon.
• ICS Village: DEF CON village dedicated to industrial control systems security with live demonstrations and educational content. Comparable as a community-driven DEF CON village track with sponsor-supported programming targeting specialized security practitioners.
• BSides Las Vegas: Community-driven security conference held annually around DEF CON in Las Vegas. Comparable as a grassroots, volunteer-organized security event with talks and workshops funded by sponsorships, targeting a similar practitioner audience with free or low-cost admission.
• Red Team Village: Another DEF CON village that operates as a community-driven track of talks, workshops, and CTFs focused on offensive security/red teaming. Closest structural peer to Recon Village - same DEF CON village format, volunteer-run, sponsorship-funded, similar audience of security practitioners.
• Blue Team Village: DEF CON village dedicated to defensive security education with talks, workshops, and contests. Mirrors Recon Village's village-as-event format and volunteer-run, sponsor-funded model, serving the complementary defensive segment of the same practitioner audience.

Regional players

• The Diana Initiative: Community-run security conference held alongside DEF CON in Las Vegas focused on diversity and inclusion in security. Comparable as a grassroots, volunteer-organized security event with sponsor funding and free/low-cost admission targeting a specific community segment.

Broad incumbents

• DEF CON: The parent annual hacker conference in Las Vegas that hosts Recon Village as a track. Directly comparable as a community-driven security event with talks, villages, and contests, but vastly broader in scope covering all of security rather than OSINT specifically.
• RSA Conference: Large-scale commercial cybersecurity conference. Comparable in hosting security talks and workshops with sponsor support, but operates at much larger scale and broader scope, serving enterprise security buyers rather than OSINT-specific practitioners.
• SANS Institute: Major cybersecurity training and certification organization that sponsors Recon Village (Community Sponsor at DEF CON 32). Comparable in delivering security education content with corporate sponsorship, though SANS operates as a paid training business rather than a free community event.
• Black Hat USA: Major annual security conference held in Las Vegas around the same time as DEF CON. Comparable as a security event serving offensive/defensive practitioners, but operates as a commercial enterprise conference with paid training rather than a free community village format.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/reconvillage
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/reconvillage

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Recon Village