Every year, the gladiators of hacking meet to sharpen their skills and compete in the world’s most elite digital coliseum — DEF CON.
A pillar of the cybersecurity industry, DEF CON is one of the world’s largest hacking conventions, with its first event taking place in 1993. It offers hands-on hacking opportunities, workshops and presentations from government, industry and education experts in the field. Attendees included those interested in protecting software computer architecture, digital infrastructure and anything vulnerable to hacking.
Since 2018, faculty, students and staff with the ASU Global Security Initiative’s Center for Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics have organized DEF CON’s signature event, the Capture the Flag competition, which has multiple security challenges that competitors must identify and resolve. Hundreds of teams from all over the world compete each year to make the final round, with 16 teams emerging as finalists.