Finals of hacker wargames kicks off in Taipei

HITCON Capture The Flag (HITCON CTF), one of the largest online hacking wargames in Asia, kicked off in Taipei Friday, with 13 teams competing for the top prize of US$10,000.

The two-day competition, organized by the Hacks In Taiwan Conference (HITCON) and the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), allows hackers to challenge information security in the hope that they will help work to make security systems safer.

According to HITCON, hackers represent the spirit of challenge and have tremendous knowledge and skills in the field of information security.

Among the 13 finalists from various countries are Dispwnable and Hacker Forge of Taiwan, the organizers said.

The winning team in the competition will be awarded US$10,000, while the second and third place winners will take home US$5,000 and US$2,000, respectively. A special prize of US$1,000 will be awarded to the Taiwan team that finishes in the highest position.

Wu Ming-ji (???), director general of Taiwan's Industrial Development Bureau (IDB), which is one of the sponsors, said that in a modern society, information security is critical to national defense and he hoped that cooperation between the hacker society and the information security sector would lay a good foundation for Taiwan's information security.

The preliminary contests were held Oct. 8-10, with the participation of about 3,000 hackers in 1,024 teams from more than 80 countries, double the number of competitors last year, organizers said.

From the 1,024 teams, 10 emerged as finalists, while another three qualified via a seeded team competition organized by Taiwan's Ministry of Education, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), and online security software developer Trend Micro Inc.

The winner of the 2016 HITCON's wargame finals will qualify for the finals of the DEF CON 25 CTF, the world's largest hacker wargames, in Las Vegas next year, the organizers said.

The first HITCON wargames were held in Taiwan in 2005, and in 2015, the organizers secured assistance from the IDB to hold the competition annually in a bid to raise awareness of information security.

HITCON is a highly technical security conference in Taiwan that employs many information security researchers and other experts in the field.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel