Hacker Olympics In Las Vegas Won By 2 US Universities

The Hacker Olympiad was won by a team from the US. (photo: defcon)

JAKARTA - A team of hackers from two US universities won the "Capture the Flag" championship. It's a contest or competition that is considered the "Hacker Olympiad", which brings together some of the best of them in the world in their field.

In the carpeted dance hall of one of Las Vegas' largest casinos, several dozen hackers competing in the challenge sat hunched over laptops from Friday to Sunday during the DEF CON security conference that hosted the event.

The winning team consisted of participants from Carnegie Mellon University, its alumni, and the University of British Columbia.

This contest involves breaking into custom-made software designed by the tournament organizer. Participants must not only find bugs in the program but also defend themselves from hacking attempts coming from other competitors.

The hackers, mostly young men and women, included visitors from China, India, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. Some of them even work for their respective governments, some work for private companies and others are students.

While in the country, they may engage in cyber espionage against one another, the DEF CON CTF contest allows elite hackers to unite in the spirit of the sport.

The prize is not money, but prestige. "No other competition has had this effect," said Giovanni Vigna, a participant who teaches at the University of California at Santa Barbara. "And everyone left politics at home."

“You'd easily find a participant here going to another who might be from a so-called enemy country to say 'You did an amazing job, amazing hacking,” Vigna said as quoted by Reuters.

The game has taken on new meaning in recent years as cybersecurity has been raised as a top national security priority by the United States, its allies and rivals. Over the past ten years, the cybersecurity industry has grown in value as hacking technology has evolved.

“Winning a title is a lifelong badge of honor,” said Aaditya Purani, an attendee who works as an engineer at Tesla Inc's electric car factory.

This year's contest was broadcast for the first time on YouTube, with live commentary in the style of television sports.

DEF CON itself, which started as a gathering of several hundred hackers in the late 1990s, was hosted at four casinos this year and attracted more than 30,000 people, according to organizer staff.

On a Saturday afternoon, participants in the "Capture the Flag" contest sat typing on their laptops as conference participants went in and out of the room to watch. Several participants picked up their food at the table, munching on hamburgers and fries with their eyes fixed on the screen.

Seungbeom Han, a systems engineer at Samsung Electronics, which is part of the South Korean team, said this was his first time entering the contest and it was an honor to qualify.