Hackers around the world are preparing to compete in one of the biggest online hacking war games in Asia, the Hacks In Taiwan Conference (HITCON), to challenge information security and help security experts make systems safer.
The 12th HITCON Capture The Flag (HITCON CTF), a preliminary marathon-style online war game, is scheduled to be held on Saturday and Sunday next week.
The top 10 winning teams will attend the final physical competition to be held in Taiwan in December.
In addition, the winner at HITCON’s war game finals will qualify to attend DEF CON 25 CTF next year — one of the world’s largest hacker conventions, held annually in Las Vegas, the organizer said.
HITCON is a highly technical security conference in Taiwan, where information security researchers equipped with professional expertise and experience are working.
The conference aims to provide a platform for all participants “to share their newest and exciting findings, to talk without worries and to exchange experience face to face” with the experts, HITCON said on its Web site.
Contestants will be challenged to solve thorny information security problems raised by the organizers and solve puzzles.
According to HITCON, hackers represent a challenging spirit and have tremendous knowledge and skills regarding information security.
The winning team from the HITCON CTF last year grasped fourth place in the DEF CON CTF in Las Vegas last month, marking the third consecutive year for HITCON CTF’s winner to make it into the top four at DEF CON CTF.
DEF CON CTF’s organizers have said that the winning team at HITCON CTF will definitely be able to compete in its bigger competition again next year.
In Taiwan, the first HITCON war game was in 2005. Since last year, HITCON has secured assistance from the Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs to hold the competition in a bid to raise awareness about information security.
The government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute has been entrusted by the ministry to provide support to HITCON to expand the size of the competition to make the war game a good example to show the cooperation between the private information security sector and the government.
HITCON CTF last year attracted 969 teams to compete in the war game, with more than 1,500 hackers from many countries, including Taiwan, China, the US, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Russia.
Last year, HITCON’s annual meeting was themed “Security of Things” and aimed to raise the public’s awareness about information security in the Internet era.
To encourage more competitors to join the war game, HITCON said the winner will be awarded US$18,000 in prize money.
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