J. Michael Cole
J. Michael Cole is a Taipei-based Editor in Chief of Taiwan Sentinel and a Senior Non Resident Fellow with the China Policy Institute, University of Nottingham. He was previously chief editor of The News Lens International.
What you need to know
The Taiwanese government is helping the annual HITCON position itself as the world’s top hacker competition.
Taiwan, a hub for all things cyber, will host an international hacking competition in December with more than US$18,000 in prize money.
The preliminary round for the competition will be held during the Hacks in Taiwan Conference (HITCON, 台灣駭客年會) held in Taiwan from Oct. 8-9. During this phase, the top 10 hackers will be selected online, who will then head for Taiwan in early December for the real deal. The winning team at the final in December will earn US$10,000 and secure a spot at DEFCON CTF 25 in Las Vegas in August 2017.
Thanks to assistance from the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Industrial Development Bureau, starting in 2015, the previously online-only annual event has had both online and physical activities.
According to Info Security magazine, a total of 969 teams from Taiwan, China, South Korea, Russia, Vietnam and the U.S. took part in last year’s HITCON.
One of the principal targets of cyber warfare by China and a testing ground for the Chinese cyber army, Taiwan has developed vast expertise in hacking, both in government and the private sector. Such expertise, however, has been largely untapped by the international community, partly due to Taiwan’s political isolation.
First Editor: Edward White
Second Editor: Olivia Yang