Digital Olympics: How Georgia Tech Participates in the World’s Biggest Hacking Contest

Outside the walls of DEF CON 32, a group of hackers prepared for the final day of the conference’s "Capture the Flag" (CTF) competition. These computer security experts used everything from dining room tables to pool tables as workstations during the final hours of the world’s largest hacking contest.

While Georgia Tech students and alumni were present throughout the "Olympics of hacking," as it is sometimes called, team BlueWater had one of the largest Georgia Tech presences in the contest. This collection of hackers comes from around the world and spends three days searching for strings of text known as "flags" hidden in vulnerable programs or websites.

They would also defend against attacks from other teams looking to gain additional flags.

“It’s not something you can do alone,” said Kevin Stevens, a Georgia Tech Ph.D. student in the Systems Software & Security Lab (SSLab). “You have to ask for help from a teammate if you don’t know how to do something or before you execute a command.”