A Taiwanese team has won second place in the Capture the Flag (CTF) competition at the 22nd DEF CON, an international convention for hackers and computer security professionals that ended on Sunday in Las Vegas.
With an average age of 23, more than half of the members of the team — called HITCON — are university students, coming mainly from National Taiwan University, National Chiao Tung University and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.
The manager of the team, Lee Lun-chuan (李倫銓), said they defeated the “Dragon Sector” team from Poland, who was the defending champion, to place second in the CTF competition. China’s “Blue Lotus” team came in fourth.
Photo courtesy of Armorize Technologies Inc founder Wayne Huang
“We had to beat many teams from other nations just to get into the final round. It is the first time in DEF CON’s 22 years that a Taiwanese team advanced into the CTF finals,” Lee said.
“Although there is no prize money in this competition, we are proud of this good result. It bolsters Taiwan’s reputation in the international software security community,” he said.
“This year’s title winner is a very strong US team, known as PPP — Plaid Parliament of Pwning. [The team] has a member known as Geohot, who is recognized as a genius in the hackers’ world. Geohot is famous for hacking into iPhone and PS3 [PlayStation 3] systems. [Competing alone] he defeated nine other teams at a recent hacker competition in South Korea,” Lee said.
CTF is one of several main hacking competitions at DEF CON, held this year from Thursday to Sunday last week. For the finals, computer programming crackers attempted to attack and defend computers and server networks using designated software and network structures.
After the preliminary contests, 20 teams advanced to the CTF final round during the weekend. Each team has to defend the embedded flaws in its server, while launching attacks agaisnt the opposition and trying to patch flaws. Lee said HITCON’s task in the finals was to defend its assigned ARM v7 server.
“The key to HITCON’s success was teamwork and close collaboration among all members. The team would like to thank Trend Micro for its financial support,” he added.
Lee said the government should organize similar competitions to encourage more young people to hone their skills in software security.
Wayne Huang (黃耀文), founder of the Web security service Amorized Techologies Inc, said that winning in a hackers’ competition comes from many years of hard work and experience.
“The US team that won got together every weekend to train, write programs, find subjects for investigation and search for solutions. This is why they captured the title this time,” Huang said.
“Taiwan has outstanding talent in this field. However, we have not yet reached a level where Taiwan’s software sector is well recognized internationally. HITCON’s achievement is a rare exception,” he said.
Huang added that the nation does not yet have a good environment to foster the healthy development of the software security industry.
“The government and the private sector should pool their resources to promote software security, so that it can become synonymous with Taiwan. It’s like when people mention Italy, they associate it with Ferraris,” Huang said.
FUKUOKA SITUATION: Japanese media reported that the pathogen is expected to be identified by the summer, while the CDC downplayed the idea that it was hMPV A “mysterious cold-like illness” reported in Japan’s Fukuoka Prefecture does not seem to be a new disease, but Japanese authorities have been asked about the situation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The Fukuoka Prefectural Medical Association on Wednesday told a news conference that a “mystery cold” that has become a hot topic on social media is “highly likely to be caused by some kind of viral infection,” Japan’s KBC News reported. “Many people are experiencing symptoms starting with a sore throat, followed by a runny nose, phlegm and a severe cough,” KBC News reported, citing association officials. Health authorities are
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of upcoming AI and technology events, saying he plans to meet with clients and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) during his visit. After landing at Taipei Songshan Airport, Huang posed for photos with fans and handed out Yakult drinks to reporters and supporters waiting at the scene, saying he has “a lot to do” during the trip. Asked about reports that Nvidia’s planned headquarters site in Taipei’s Beitou Shilin Technology Park could break ground on May 27, Huang said that if the company holds an event, he would
The Ministry of Finance this afternoon announced the winning numbers for the March-April uniform invoice lottery. The winning number for the NT$10 million (US$318,060) special prize is 19531471, and the winning number for the NT$2 million grand prize is 85941329. Three numbers were drawn for the NT$200,000 first prize: 07225810, 20231230 and 83518781. Those with receipts matching the last seven digits of any of the first-prize numbers will win the NT$40,000 second prize, while those matching the last six digits will win the NT$10,000 third prize. Those whose receipts match the last five digits of the first-prize numbers can claim the NT$4,000 fourth prize,
SIX SUBSIDIES: The monthly allowance for older farmers is to increase to NT$10,000, and NT$5,000 is to be given to homemakers under the national pension system, Lai said The government is to implement major welfare policies for disadvantaged groups, including raising the monthly allowance for older farmers to NT$10,000 and providing homemakers with NT$5,000 per month, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks during a visit to Wangling Temple in Chiayi County, saying that the planned increases were being introduced amid economic growth and an increase in tax revenue. Touting a policy, in which the government plans to provide a monthly allowance of NT$5,000 for every child under the age of 18 in a bid to address Taiwan’s low birthrate, Lai said that if received for the
RSS