Networking, a live hacking event & more at this year’s DefCamp cybersecurity conference in Bucharest

DefCamp, a leading cybersecurity conference in the region, will hold its 13th edition this month, November 23-24. For the first time, this year’s edition features a live hacking event, where participants will try to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in computer systems in real-time, in addition to various networking and educational activities.

The Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions are a highlight of the event, attracting numerous competitors to DefCamp’s Hacking Village, the playground dedicated to cybersecurity education and knowledge development, with total prizes of up to EUR 100,000.

The qualifiers for DefCamp Capture the Flag (D-CTF), the largest CTF competition in the Central and Eastern European region, attracted more than 600 teams from over 80 countries. Of these, the top 16 teams are invited to the final that will take place live and where participants from Romania, Italy, Norway, Germany, Greece, France, Austria, and Croatia are expected to participate.

“Year after year, we strive to provide participants with the right setting for information exchange, collaboration, and networking by bringing some of the most relevant international experts in the field to the conference stages. At the same time, we aim to further develop the cybersecurity knowledge learning and testing playground, Hacking Village, by designing new activities and increasingly stimulating challenges, and bringing together relevant partners. The live hacking event we are hosting this year will certainly be one of the hardest challenges for the participants, but it will also be equally rewarding,” said Andrei Avadanei, founder of DefCamp.

This year, in addition to D-CTF, DefCamp 2023 participants can compete in 12 other Hacking Village activities. The CyberEDU educational technical platform will host 7 of the 12 activities. Participants can choose from a range of hardware, software, and network hacking challenges, digital forensics, reverse engineering, and more.

“In addition to organizing Hacking Village competitions, DefCamp is becoming an increasingly relevant event for the industry, with each edition providing a training and development platform for cybersecurity enthusiasts, especially in the context of increasing cyber threats. DefCamp 2023 brings together more than 2,000 participants to attend and contribute to discussions on current issues related to vulnerabilities in information systems,” the organizers said in the press release.

Well-known names at DefCamp, such as Chris Kubecka - Advisor on State-Level Cyber Incidents, Cyber Warfare and Cyber Espionage, Tudor Damian - IT Consultant who will explore the changes brought about by the NIS 2 Directive, and Abdullah Joseph - Senior Security Researcher who will explore zero-knowledge authentication protocols, will take on the DefCamp stage together with a series of new speakers. These include Abdullah Al-Sultani (TikTok Product Security Engineer), Arun Mane (Founder and CEO at AMYNASEC LABS), Ta-Lun Yen (Senior Vulnerability Researcher at TXONE NETWORKS), and more.