OWASP Manchester, UK Chapter

This March, OWASP Manchester welcomes you to the familiar halls of Barclays DiSH to hear some exciting talks to get 2026 started in style
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Due to a corporate policy from the venue sponsor, to get into the venue & up to the event, you will need to register with your full name when signing up to the event AND show photo ID when checking in to the event on the night.
As we're still dealing with a large number of no-shows, if you don't attend without releasing your ticket, we may remove you from future events.
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Agenda:
6:00 - Open doors & networking & drinks
6:15 - Intro from OWASP / housekeeping - followed by a word from Curity
6:30 - Aliyu G Yisa - Accessibility & Application Security
7:15 - Refreshments (Food & Drinks & Networking)
8:00 - Luke Smith & Alasdair Gorniak - Getting Your First 0-Day
9:00 - Vacate venue -> to the pub for more socialising
LOCATION
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Barclays DiSH
47 Lloyd St (Heron House)
Manchester
M2 5LE
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Accessibility & Application Security
About 1.3 billion people worldwide have a disability. Accessibility standards and practices exist so those people can access products, content and environments like everyone else. Accessibility doesn't often feature in application security conversations, but it is a critical dimension we can't afford to miss. When users with disabilities can't independently authenticate to an application or access their own sensitive information, this puts their privacy, security and safety at risk. When security tools and education are inaccessible, people with disabilities are blocked or severely disadvantaged in the cybersecurity industry. As a community that values inclusion, fairness and ethics, we're well placed to lead on this. In this session, we will discuss accessibility barriers, how they impact security, real examples of how people are affected, and what we can and should be doing to improve accessibility.

Getting Your First 0-Day
In this speech, we will be going over how you can get your first CVE and how you can use the knowledge from your first likely very poor CVE into something more much impactful. I will go over my starting CVE’s and then go into high impact CVE’s found by me and my team.

SPEAKERS
Aliyu G Yisa
Aliyu is a cyber security practitioner, startup and non-profit founder, and an advocate for accessible security. He has built several realistic open-source labs like Zero-Health for learning Application Security and Web and API hacking. In addition to his work as a security engineer, he co-founded Fezzant on a mission to make cybersecurity accessible and inclusive. He also co-founded CyBlack to build the next generation of black/African cyber security talent. Aliyu also volunteers for The Cyber Helpline as an Advisory Board Member. Aliyu has presented about accessibility and cyber security at several events including Axe-Con, DTX Manchester and National Cyber Security Show.

Luke Smith
Luke Smith is a Cybersecurity Engineer and researcher based in Manchester. He and his small research team have found Vulnerabilities in Apache, NASA and Microsoft to name a handful. When not on a computer he enjoys Playing football and chess for his Hometown.