A World-Class Hackathon to Take Place in Taiwan, International Hackers to Contend for Prize Money Totaling US$18,000

HONG KONG, CHINA--(Marketwired - Sep 11, 2016) - HITCON CTF -- an international information security contest in Taiwan -- will begin in October. The global preliminary of 2016 HITCON CTF will take place online on October 8 and 9. The top-10 winners at the preliminary will go to Taiwan for the final in early December. The champion team will be entitled to prize money of US$10,000 and qualified for DEF CON 25 CTF in the US. This is the 12^th annual HITCON CTF held by the HITCON (Hacks in Taiwan Conference), and HITCON has therefore accumulated abundant experiences in organizing its HITCON CTF to make the 2016 event even more challenging.

In early August 2016, HITCON won the fourth place at DEF CON CTF in Las Vegas, entering the top four at DEF CON CTF for three consecutive years (2^nd place in 2014, and 4^th place in both 2015 and 2016). HITCON CTF was also announced a qualifier for the 2017 DEF CON for the second consecutive year, recognizing HITCON CTF's strengths in making the qualifying contest challenging enough to attract the top hackers to participate in the contest in Taiwan.

HITCON has been organizing its annual HITCON CTF since 2005, given that information security is critical to any individual, business, and county. Taiwan government organizations are also committed to the development of information security professionals and continue strengthening the development this year in order to speed up the growth of the industry. Assisted by the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB), under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) for the first time in 2015, HITCON CTF was expanded from an online event into both online and physical events implemented together with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), which also sets a precedent that a government unit takes the initiative to assist an international hackathon. 2015 HITCON CTF had 969 teams consisting of more than 1,500 people from Mainland China, Russia, South Korea, Vietnam, and the US in addition to Taiwan. This year the hackers will contend for prize money totaling US$18,000, in addition, the champion team will be qualified for DEF CON 25 CTF in 2017.

There are many hacker-level cybersecurity experts in Taiwan due to Taiwan holding the most important strategic location in the world in terms of information security: one-fourth of malwares around the world are first found in Taiwan. Taiwan seems highly susceptible to cyber attacks, but this potential vulnerability also offers Taiwan a vantage point as it helps create a wealth of cybersecurity data and a talent pool of hackers. HITCON CTF is an attempt to further stimulate the development of hacker and information security communities to cultivate more talents for information security innovation. For further information on HITCON CTF, please check out http://ctf.hitcon.org/.

Competition Schedule

• Online Qualification: October 8th-9th; the top ten scoring teams qualify for the final. 
• On-site Final: December 2nd-3rd; the 10 qualified teams are invited to Taiwan for the final.

Prizes

• First place: US$10,000 and an award certificate; qualification for 2017 DEF CON.
• Second place: US$5,000 and an award certificate.
• Third place: US$2,000 and an award certificate.

Organizer HITCON Team's Major Achievements in 2014-2016

• 2nd place of 2014 and 4th place of 2015/2016 DEF CON CTF (U.S.)
• 2nd place of 2014 HITB CTF (Malaysia)
• 2nd place of 2015/2016 SECCON CTF (Japan)
• 2nd place of 2015 and 1st place of 2016 Boston Key Party CTF (U.S.)
• 1st place of 2014/2015 BCTF (China)
• 1st place of 2015 0CTF (China)
• 1st place of 2015 XCTF (China)

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About HITCON
After its hard work unknown to many others for eleven years, HITCON has won the respect and support from different sectors of Taiwan. In order to speed up its growth, HITCON organized itself as an association approved by the government in 2015. Different tries by HITCON are intended to provide more room for development of information security talents in Taiwan, call more business attention to the importance of information security, and convey the correct concepts about information security in order to prompt the government and private sector as well as hacker communities to together enhance information security.