Troopers 18: a must-visit conference for every cybersecurity geek

Hacken team members give comment on one of the Top 10 IT security conferences around the world

The annual cybersecurity conference Troopers 18 just wrapped up in Heidelberg, Germany. It was an exciting event that reinforced some cyber security trends we’ve observed over the past years. The strongest realisation was that there are numbers of incredibly intelligent and talented people who stand up against the everyday challenges of IT security. Indeed, cyber security currently has momentum.

Hacken’s Challenges

Four Hacken Team members were lucky to visit the conference. In Hacken’s zone they launched two challenges “Hack my Ethereum Smart Contract” and “Snatch my key”, each of them had 4 stages. 10 persons took part in the first challenge. The best researcher was awarded with HKNs, others received tickets to HackIT conference, and Hacken merches. Concerning the second challenge, there were 15 hackers who attempted to find vulnerabilities in the Hideez hardware key. No vulnerability was discovered within 48 hours.

All the participants got excited about the challenges, they liked the entertaining mode and an opportunity to test own hacking skills.

How was it? Interviewing Hacken Team members

We interviewed Evgenia Broshevan, Program Director at Hacken, and Andrii Matiukhin, CTO and co-founder of Hacken, to get some insider opinions about Troopers 18.

What is your general impression of the conference?

E.B. I liked that the Troopers Community appeared to be diverse, warm and friendly, it seemed that I know these people for several years! The atmosphere was informal and cozy. Besides, I enjoyed the organization of the conference and thank for the chance to taste traditional German cuisine on the shared dinner at first day.

A.M. Personally, I broke my stereotype that small towns can be boring. Although Heidelberg is comparatively tiny, the great conference with long history takes place there attracting thousands of visitors worldwide. By the way, I liked the glass building where Troopers 18 was organized (Print Media Academy). The spacing was very light, it gave an impression that the room is enormously huge. That’s nice that it was not overcrowded.

What exciting things or events happened at the conference?

E.B. We introduced one of the conference planners to the Hacken Community and encouraged to become HKN holder. Besides, we completed our main aims: received valuable feedback about the bug bounty platform and Hacken in whole and found some talented hackers during our CTF challenge. We want to cooperate with them further on HackenProof.

A.M. It was a good idea that every participant had to visit all the stands in order to get keys for the further panel game. As a result, no stand remained unvisited, and all troopers got acquainted. It is interesting to note that despite the fact that the ticket price was increased this year and was rather high, all tickets were sold out and some people even couldn’t visit the conference.

Why you should visit HackIT 2017. Read last year report

Taking everything into consideration, we may conclude that exploration of cyber space remains in constant development. Such international conferences as Troopers 18 provide quality content in order to unite the diverse cyber community and improve cyber safety. Our team members, the HackIT conference directors, gained valuable experience how to improve our Hacken conference and engage more visitors and participants.
Read also why you HackIT