Last Friday a team from our research group (“the CInsects”) participated at the annual iCTF, a Capture the Flag contest held UCSB. As always it was a blast.

The contest itself was somewhat different than the Ctfs we played before. It was a “capture the flag” without any flags. Instead every team had to run and secure a very, very buggy online bank. The goal was to keep as much of your own money as possible and to increase that amount by hacking the other banks to transfer their funds to your account.

We finished the game on a solid 6th position (out of 25). I was no big help to my team though, as I had to watch my son most of the night and could therefore only temporary help robbing the other banks. At least I solved on of the side quests, that were posted during the game to win some bonus money. My biggest regret is that I was not there, when they shot the video.