UBC hackers capture the ultimate flag once again
The University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Capture the Flag (CTF) cybersecurity team, Maple Bacon, has done it again.
They joined forces with the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) team as well as CMU alumni and others, to compete at DEFCON under the name Maple Mallard Magistrates (MMM), and together, the team of 58 won the Capture the Flag title for the second year in a row.
DEF CON hosts the world’s largest and renowned programming competition, and this year it was held in Las Vegas from August 10-13. Widely considered the ‘Olympics’ of hacking, DEF CON draws cybersecurity professionals, researchers and students, as twelve of the world’s top teams attempted to break each other’s systems, steal virtual flags and earn points, while simultaneously protecting their own.
Founder and leader of the UBC Maple Bacon team, Dr. Robert Xiao, said, “Our UBC team is proving itself quite capable in the cybersecurity realm, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the top competitors in the world.”
In terms of a training ground, participating in competitions like DEFCON Capture the Flag through the Maple Bacon team seems to be an impetus for future employment success in cybersecurity. Dr. Xiao explained, “Our graduates have gone on to work with major technology companies - becoming security engineers and cybersecurity experts, working in security roles at the Canadian Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Google, Arista Networks, Apple, Jane Street, and others.”
Dr. Xiao has been instrumental in getting the team to where they are, but also admits, “The competition this year was fierce! Some teams we competed against had over 200 members. Despite that, we prevailed, thanks to our teamwork and great synergies. In the process, our students sharpened their cybersecurity skills and gained valuable experiences which are readily applicable to real security challenges.”
As the number of cybersecurity attacks continues to increase worldwide, competitions like DEF CON’s CTF provide the opportunity for leading cybersecurity engineers to measure up against one another, learning and developing new techniques as they work through various challenges.
This second win at DEFCON for the Maple Bacon team firmly establishes UBC as persistently dominant on the world stage within the Capture the Flag arena.
Maple Bacon is always eager to accept and welcome new members (UBC students, faculty and alumni), and no previous coding or competition experience is necessary.
Maple Bacon would also like to thank Rogers for their donation which helped fund some travel costs.
More about the Maple Bacon team