Laokoon SecurITy wins the final of "Germany's Best Hacker"

Laokoon SecurITy employees took part in the hacker challenge  "Germany's best hacker 2022" demonstrated their hacking skills on several occasions.

Two finalists from Laokoon SecurITy in the final

Laokoon SecurITy's Moritz Samrock qualified for the final in the top places in the six-week, three-phase qualifying round.

Newcomer Luca Greeb also qualified for the final and gave a first impression of his impressive hacking skills.

Bootcamp and finale at MOTORWOLD in Munich

On the weekend of 9 to 11 September, the Bootcam took place in Munich as the final of "Germany's Best Hacker" 2022. The event is organised by MR Datentechnik Vertriebs- und Service GmbH and whitelisthackers GmbH.

Film workshop as an icebreaker

The participants spent the first day primarily networking and attending a film workshop at the Bavaria film studios. Here, the ice was broken and there was a lively exchange about the qualification challenges, hacker myths and myths and current cyber incidents. Various supporters of the event also joined the group of participants for dinner and enabled the participants to make high-quality contacts. Not only representatives from Sophos and Thales were present, but also the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and various online media.

AKW hacking as the final challenge

Saturday was all about the final challenge from "Germany's best hacker":

After a joint breakfast, the participants were given enough time to set up their set-ups and arrange their seats.

Afterwards, we were able to take a deep breath and top up our reserves of mate, energy drinks and snacks.

After being briefed on the final challenge, we set off straight away. The goal - to compromise a nuclear power plant.

The hackers had to use a YubiKey to gain initial access and then take over various hosts on the intranet. Various clues about the final target network were also collected here, passwords and VPN connection information were tapped and then exploited.

Once in the target network, the task was to take over the central computer, escalate the privileges again and then shut down part of the cooling system in a simulated manner as a proof of concept.

It should be noted at this point that this was not a realistic scenario of a nuclear power plant, but that vulnerabilities and misconfigurations were deliberately built into the networks, which were to be found by the participants in the "Germany's Best Hacker" challenge.

2nd place and top 10 at Germany's Best Hacker

Moritz Samrock was the first participant to take over the AKW and shut down the cooling system in a simulated shutdown. Luca Greeb was also successful and placed in the top 10.

After the technical part of the challenge, the first four participants had to present themselves to a panel of experts, explain their solution and answer questions from the jury.

After the subsequent deliberations of the jury, the award ceremony took place.

After a long wait, the winners were announced - sixteen-year-old Leon was able to convince the jury the most and won the coveted ticket to Las Vegas for the BlackHat hacker fair.

After a close decision by the jury, Moritz Samrock placed directly behind him and won second place, receiving various peripheral elements.

Networking and celebrating after the award ceremony

Following the award ceremony, the event seamlessly transitioned into informal socialising, networking and celebrating - and the first plans for next year's participation were already being forged.

Registration is already open. Interested parties can already register for "Germany's Best Hacker 2023" here. The qualification starts on 05 July 2023.

Capture the flag events and hacker challenges for further training

Participation in challenges such as "Germany's Best Hacker" and Capture The Flag events are part of the corporate philosophy of Laokoon SecurITy. Our employees can use up to twenty per cent of their working time for further training and participation in such challenges. These types of competitions are an excellent way of identifying your own weaknesses and putting your own skillset to the test. You can find more information about our corporate philosophy and our career opportunities on our Career page.