Cyberscoop
BY CHRISTIAN VASQUEZ
AUGUST 16, 2023
LAS VEGAS — In a room almost overflowing with spectators inside Caesars Forum, the main venue for this year’s DEF CON hacking conference, five teams of hackers from around the world waited anxiously to see who would be named the winner of the first-ever capture the flag in space.
It’s not often that a crowd this large gathers to celebrate security researchers’ work, but this was no ordinary hacking contest. It represented the culmination of many years of planning and investment from the Air Force, which organized the event, and the first time hackers have been openly encouraged to break into a satellite as it hurtles over the earth at 17,000 miles per hour.