South Korean white hackers secured consecutive 2nd and 3rd places at the world's most prestigious international hacking competition, DEF CON CTF 34. Domestic cybersecurity talents have continued to achieve top rankings at DEF CON for five consecutive years since 2022.
The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) announced on the 10th that six domestic teams, consisting of mentors and graduates from the Next-Generation Security Leader Training Program (BoB), achieved top rankings at the DEF CON CTF 34 finals held in Las Vegas, USA, from the 6th to the 9th of this month.
Notably, the team '0x4b52', led by BoB mentor Lee Jong-ho and KAIST professor Yoon In-soo, secured 2nd place. The team 'SuperDiceCodeLovers', led by mentor Kim Ji-seop, took 3rd place. For the 0x4b52 team, this was their best result since finishing 3rd in 2022 as a team composed entirely of Koreans.
As a result, South Korean cybersecurity talents have secured top rankings at DEF CON CTF for five consecutive years since 2022. This year, a total of six domestic teams, including 0x4b52 and SuperDiceCodeLovers, along with ColdFusion, Jinddabi's, TheSeoulSaunaShogunats, and D0kdo, advanced to the finals.
DEF CON is the world's largest cybersecurity conference, founded in 1993 by renowned hacker Jeff Moss. DEF CON CTF, held during the event, is a competition where top-tier white hackers and security experts from around the globe compete in attack and defense techniques and problem-solving abilities, recognized as the most prestigious hacking competition.
A total of 686 teams participated in this year's online preliminary round, with only 12 teams advancing to the finals. Half of the finalist teams, six in total, were domestic teams. Many participants from these teams were graduates and mentors of BoB, operated by the Ministry of Science and ICT and KISA. BoB is a white hacker training program that provides customized education for cybersecurity professionals and team projects over nine months.
Domestic security talents also presented research findings not only at hacking competitions but also at the official DEF CON conference. WHS (White Hat School) mentor Kwon Hyun-jun and WHS 3rd cohort graduates Lee Ji-ye and Lee Jong-yoon unveiled open-source AWS (Amazon Web Services) attack scenario research based on actual security breach cases. BoB 10th cohort graduate Kim Hee-chan shared research results on privilege escalation vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system.
Choi Woo-hyuk, Director of the Information Protection Network Policy Office at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, "South Korean cybersecurity talents once again demonstrated their outstanding skills and competitiveness at the world's most prestigious international hacking competition," adding, "We will continue to cultivate top-level information security professionals capable of proactively responding to advanced cyber threats in the AI era."
Lee Sang-joong, President of KISA, remarked, "The achievement of 0x4b52 is a case that proves domestic security talents possess world-class capabilities," and added, "Through BoB, we will continue to nurture talents who can compete on the global stage in the future."
in TECH
