When technical excellence meets passion and fun!
Luxembourg, October 29th, 2013 – The 9th edition of hack.lu took place last week in Luxembourg over an intensive three days of interactive workshops, expert talks, intense networking and technological fun. Hack.lu http://2013.hack.lu/index.php/Main_Page has become one of the oldest and biggest Information Security conferences running in Europe and a key opportunity for the hacker community to get together and share security discoveries. The conference was organised by the Computer Incident Response Center Luxembourg on October 22nd to 24th, 2013. With 250 attendees from more than 40 different countries the conference has strongly positioned itself on the international cybersecurity scene, while somehow keeping an intimate and community driven atmosphere.
“I wouldn’t have believed 9 years ago when I first started this conference, with my colleague Fred Arbogast, that it would have become such a must to attend event and gain such an international reputation. Hack.lu is really the place for hackers to talk about the security vulnerabilities they have discovered, their own security failures and their solutions. It is the opportunity for them to share with their peers in a safe face-to-face environment about things they cannot always share through online networks and platforms. Strong collaborative ties are created during such an event, in addition to some sleepless nights spent to debate, share and enjoy the technological insights from the experts present”, explains Alexandre Dulaunoy, from CIRCL.
As close as possible to reality
The topics presented during the conference tackle some of the main current concerns and trends: • understanding malware thanks to the use of reverse-engineering; phishing issues and mobile applications, • exploitation of vulnerabilities in internet banking applications, • cybersecurity vs physical security, • mobile devices security, • IP cameras attacks, just to mention a few.
“These themes are not just a flat display of theories but are all illustrated with practical examples of attacks and system failures tested by the expert himself/herself”, notes Pascal Steichen, from CIRCL.
400 teams for one flag
One of the main highlights of the conference is the Capture the Flag (CTF) contest that has enrolled this year around 400 teams, each made of 1 to 20 people. “CTF is a computer Security competition aiming to give participants experience in securing a machine, but also in conducting and reacting to real world type of attacks. This contest is designed like an educational exercise by the FluxFingers architects from the Ruhr-University Bochum, who have been present during the entire event. The teams engaged score on their success in defending the machine/network given to them and attacking the others’. The theme this year is ‘the robot’, which makes the competition even more interesting and fun”, adds Alexandre.
The winner this year is the team “PPP”, based in the United States. The participants present in Luxembourg and ranked best are: • More Smoked Leet Chicken (Russie), in 2nd position • pollypocket (Belgique), in 5th position • Eindbazen (Hollande), in 9th position
As programming and technology passion is not only dedicated to grown-ups, the Code Club organised a programming workshop for kids on the first evening of the event, in order to help them create their own computer game and do some “hacking” of their own.
The number of cyber attacks, spying activities and system vulnerabilities are largely increasing. The malicious use of backdoors on systems and the threats linked to the increase usage of mobile devices and applications is on the rise. “Hack.lu allows the hacker community to inform and communicate on existing security threats and share solutions to counter them. This is our ultimate goal”, concludes Alexandre.