The winningest team in DEF CON’s Capture-the-Flag (CTF) competition history, Carnegie Mellon University’s Plaid Parliament of Pwning (PPP), won its fourth consecutive title, earning its ninth victory in the past 13 years.
PPP joined forces with CMU alumnus and University of British Columbia Professor Robert Xiao's team, Maple Bacon, and hackers from CMU alum startup Theori.io (The Duck), playing under the name Maple Mallard Magistrates (MMM).
DEF CON’s three-day flagship competition, widely considered the “Olympics” of hacking, brought together some of the world’s most talented cybersecurity professionals, researchers, and students, as 12 of the world’s top teams (who qualified from a field of more than 2,300 teams) attempted to break each other’s systems, stealing virtual flags and accumulating points while simultaneously protecting their own systems.
As the number of cybersecurity attacks continues to increase worldwide, competitions like DEF CON’s Capture-the-Flag provide the opportunity for leading cybersecurity engineers to measure up against one another, learning and developing new techniques as they work through various challenges.
Carnegie Mellon students, faculty, and alumni took an early lead in the competition but faced some adversity during the LiveCTF portion of the event, which narrowed the gap in the race to the top of the leaderboard heading into Sunday. The team ultimately rebounded to pull away from its closest challengers in the competition's final hours and secure the victory. For the win, MMM earned eight black badges, the most elite recognition in hacking.
