Greetings all!
I've put out the call for participation for the Hack-a-Sat competition in the past, and would like to bring you all up to date on the developments and opportunities that have developed since.
The website is here: https://www.hackasat.com/
Hack-a-Sat is an activity that was scheduled to happen at the in-person DEFCON event.
As of today, yes, it's true. DEFCON has been cancelled.
Those of you that have volunteered at Ham Radio Village in the past are familiar with the event. For those of you that are not, it's a long-running hacking and cybersecurity event that has enthusiastically adopted everything RF and amateur radio.
The United States Air Force, in conjunction with the Defense Digital Service, organized this year’s Space Security Challenge, called Hack-A-Sat. This challenge asks hackers from around the world to focus their skills and creativity on solving cybersecurity challenges on space systems. This competition is going to be held! It's now a virtual event.
Security in the amateur radio sense of the word is fundamentally different from commercial and military applications. We have an advantage here, mainly due to the enormous leverage we have due to our context being completely different from what the Air Force and commercial interests assume. This is, essentially, a diversity advantage.
If you want to participate on an experienced Capture The Flag (CTF) team, then I am here to extend an invitation. Anyone that reads through the rules and can afford to spend some time during the event is invited to apply to join Vaporsec. This is a team that has a majority of information security professionals. There are some satellite industry people, some amateur involvement, and I'd like to make sure that anyone interested in competing from AMSAT-BB gets a chance to join a competitive team.
The benefits to amateur radio are primarily technical, with policy and security a close second. The Air Force has some agendas here in terms of improving satellite security. Exposure to the challenges alone is a an excellent opportunity to learn more about modern satellite technology... and what a significant player in space wants to find out more about. Don't assume that that the challenges in the competition are going to be "too hard". What is trivial for one viewpoint is unsolvable for another.
I'll be writing about the event and what we learned when it is over, so this sort of knowledge will not be secret. However, there is no replacement for participation, and you could very well have the practical knowledge, gained from operating real satellites, that wins the competition. As you can see from the website, there is some real money involved and opportunities for technical writing.
Let me know at [email protected] if you would like to talk more about joining a CTF team for this really neat and unique event.
Know someone that you think should participate? Please forward to them.
-Michelle W5NYV