The MTU RedTeam captured 1st place in an Open Source INTelligence Capture The Flag contest (OSINT CTF), hosted at the GrrCON Cyber Security Summit and Hacker Conference, September 16-17, 2021, in Grand Rapids, MI. Thirteen RedTeam members and two RedTeam alumni attended the conference.
Competing for the RedTeam were Cybersecurity majors Matthew Chau, Ben Gerhart, Devon Midkiff, Jacob Ludwig (Cybersecurity), Trevor Hornsby, and Leeanna Burns, who is not a MTU student. Their opponents included students from Big Ten universities and teams of industry professionals. The contest began the morning of September 17 morning and concluded Friday afternoon with a panel discussion.
“GrrCON was a fantastic success and we are all very grateful for the department’s support,” says Trevor Hornsby, RedTeam vice president. “After talking to several students attending for the first time, they all expressed appreciation for the knowledge and networking opportunities gained by attending.”
In addition to the CTF, the RedTeam students took advantage of a full schedule of talks and opportunities to speak to industry-leading companies and individuals about the current security landscape.
GrrCON is an information security and hacking conference that provides the Midwest information security community with a fun atmosphere to engage with like-minded people, according to the event website. Find more information about the CTF and the GrrCON Conference here.
The description of the GrrCON CTF reads, “Think you have what it takes to track down real flags on real targets? That’s what the OSINT CTF is all about. No hacking of social media accounts, no clever vishing campaigns, just open source deep dives into the lives of complete strangers who have graciously agreed to be our volun-targets for the contest.” Link to the official CTF scoreboard here.