A team of hackers from two North American universities won the “Capture the Flag” championship, a competition seen as the “Olympics of hacking” that brings together some of the world’s best universities in the field. In the carpeted ballroom of one of Las Vegas’ largest casinos, a few dozen hackers taking part in the challenge sat at laptops Friday through Sunday during the DEF CON security conference that hosts the event. The winning team, named the Maple Mallard Magistrates, included participants from Carnegie Mellon University, its alumni, and the University of British Columbia.
The competition involves breaking into custom-made software designed by the competition organizers. Participants must not only find bugs in the program but also defend themselves against hacks from other competitors.
The hackers were mostly young men and women, visitors from China, India, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. Some worked for their respective governments, some for private companies and some as college students.
Although their countries engage in cyber espionage against each other, the DEF CON CTF competition allows elite hackers to come together in the spirit of the game.
The prize is not money but prestige. “No other competition has had this impact,” said participant Giovanni Vigna, who teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “And everyone leaves politics at home.”
“You can easily find a participant here who might be from a so-called enemy nation and say, ‘You did an amazing job, an incredible hack.'”
The game has taken on new meaning in recent years as cybersecurity has been elevated as a national security priority by the United States, its allies and adversaries. Over the past 10 years, the cybersecurity industry has grown in value as hacking technology has evolved.
Winning the title is a lifetime honor, said participant Aditya Puranik, who works as an engineer at electric car maker Tesla Inc.
This year’s tournament was broadcast on YouTube for the first time, with live commentary in the style of a televised game.
DEF CON itself, which began as a gathering of a few hundred hackers in the late 1990s, was held at four casinos this year and drew crowds of more than 30,000, according to organizing staff.
On Saturday afternoon, participants in the “Capture the Flag” contest sat typing away at their laptops as conference attendees filed in and out of the room to watch. Some participants took their meals at the tables, their eyes fixed on the screen over hamburgers and fries.
Seungbeom Han, a systems engineer at Samsung Electronics who was part of the South Korean team, said it was his first time at the competition and it was an honor to qualify.
Competition was fierce and sitting in the chairs for eight hours a day was not easy. They took bathroom breaks, he said with a laugh, “but they’re a waste of time.”
© Thomson Reuters 2022
