Available in Chinese | Website geekpwn.org | |
GeekPwn (simplified Chinese: 极棒; traditional Chinese: 極棒; pinyin: ji bang) is a hacking contest.
Contents
It is the world’s first hacking contest to tackle the security issues of smart devices. It formed an international community that safeguards the security of smart devices. It differs from another hacker contest, Pwn2Own, in that the contestants are not limited to computers or mobile phones; instead, they may hack any smart software or hardware device.
Contest
The GeekPwn competition features six smart life categories: Smart Phone, Smart Transportation, Wearable Device, Smart Home, Smart Entertainment and Mobile APP.
To give contestants greater incentives, GeekPwn will provide multiple best-of-the-year honors, besides awarding contestants with generous prize money and the chance to be inducted into the GeekPwn Hall of Fame.
History
The first GeekPwn contest was held in Beijing, China, from Oct. 24-25 in 2014, sponsored by technology firms and internet companies including Google, Microsoft, Huawei, Lenovo and Tencent. White hat hackers broke into a variety of devices, such as intelligent automobiles, key fobs, and smartphones - which helped the manufacturers fix vulnerabilities and strengthen product security.
A second event was held in Shanghai on Oct. 24 the following year with a total prize pool of five million yuan. Contestants hacked into about 40 types of smart software and hardware, including drones, cameras and routers; the outstanding performers were honored with a place in the newly created GeekPwn Hall of Fame. Manufacturers were invited to watch the contest and received immediate reports about discovered vulnerabilities.
GeekPwn contests is now held twice a year from 2016. The Macau contest is added this year on May 12th with more international style and same level of award as GeekPwn Carnival contest to improve smart device manufacturers' security sense and ability globally. The competitors from Chaitin Technology are rewarded 420 thousand Yuan by virtue of 10 router projects and xiaoyi camera project, becoming the biggest winner of the competition; the Surface Pro project from the network attack and defense group of Tencent PC Manager won the single award of 150 thousand Yuan and the “Most dominant Technology Award” of 50 thousand yuan depending on their superior technology. ; Cao Yue team from University of California won the single award of 100 thousand Yuan and the “Greatest Enriched Brian Award” of 50 thousand Yuan by virtue of the world’s shocking TCP hijacking technology.
Goals
The goals of the contest are to push manufacturers to improve product security, GeekPwn will hold a training camp in 2016, offering courses GeekPwn’s partners. It was the first time the security issue of smart devices caught the spotlight of Chinese mainstream media. The short program was produced jointly by CCTV, one of the most influential state-owned media, and hacking contest platform GeekPwn. It was produced to make smaller smart hardware manufacturers more aware of product quality, to urge them to find bugs and glitches in their systems and to fix them to protect the privacy, property and personal safety of customers.
Founder
KEEN is the first Asian team to win prizes in the history of Pwn2Own. It has also won more Pwn2Own prizes than any other Asian teams. Up to now, hundreds of KEEN's security outcomes have been applied to every Windows PC, every Apple device and every Android device.
Wang Qi, founder of GeekPwn and CEO of KEEN, says all smart devices are vulnerable. "The earlier and the more vulnerabilities that are found, the safer the products are," Wang says. "No systems are free from bugs, not even Windows, but the key is that we discover the bugs before those with evil intentions." Wang said he founded GeekPwn to provide a platform for geeks where they could fully express their creative ideas about technology and smart devices, and show the public how technology and smart devices can enhance lives. "Also, technology companies are eager to recruit geeks and they can scout talent through GeekPwn events," he said.
Contestants and their hacking targets
One of GeekPwn’s primary aims is to show off the talents of relatively unknown hackers to the world. All of its competition winners will be awarded medals of honor and have their names placed in the GeekPwn Hall of Fame. In 2016, GeekPwn will also hand out best-of-the-year titles in multiple categories.
The following contestants have been elected into the GeekPwn Hall of Fame by GeekPwn’s organizing committee.
Organizing committee
The contest’s organizing committee comprises a judging panel and an advisory group, whose members are all world-renowned experts in the field of information security.