Did a Chinese University Hacking Competition Target a Real Victim?
WiredCapture the flag hacking contests at security conferences generally serve two purposes: to help participants develop and demonstrate computer hacking and security skills, and to assist employers and government agencies with discovering and recruiting new talent. According to two Western researchers who translated documentation for China’s Zhujian Cup, also known as the National Collegiate Cybersecurity Attack and Defense Competition, one part of the three-part competition, held last year for the first time, had a number of unusual characteristics that suggest its potentially secretive and unorthodox purpose. Capture the flag and other types of hacking competitions are generally hosted on closed networks or “cyber ranges”—dedicated infrastructure set up for the contest so that participants don’t risk disrupting real networks. And unlike other competitions in China the researchers examined, participants in this portion of the Zhujian Cup were prohibited from publishing social media posts revealing the nature of the competition or the tasks they performed as part of it.
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