Shearwater Solutions, A CyberCX Company, in collaboration with Security Innovation, will host its 5th Annual AppSec Hackathon competition on Friday 15 November 2019. This year’s event is proudly sponsored by nib and Arrow ECS ANZ.
Over 150 cybersecurity professionals, application developers and students will compete simultaneously in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, with remote online access for participants in other regions.
Participants are tasked with identifying and exploiting intentional vulnerabilities in social media site: ‘INSTAFRIENDS’, a simulated website with traffic, technologies and vulnerabilities that represent actual application behaviours. Having been successfully run at a variety of international events, including DEFCON, RSA Conference and OWASP AppSec California, Shearwater is proud to bring this challenge to Australia.
Competitors learn to think like malicious hackers and develop the skills they need to identify vulnerabilities in their applications. It is also the ideal opportunity to encourage networking and collaboration between industry specialists and the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
Event manager and Shearwater Head of Marketing, Mikhael Chammaa, said the Hackathon is designed to educate participants about vulnerabilities that may exist in their own applications.
“By allowing participants to see an application through the eyes of a malicious hacker, Shearwater AppSec Hackathon raises awareness of vulnerabilities common to most business applications and encourages participants to incorporate security more effectively into their software development lifecycle.”
“We want Australia’s cybersecurity to go from strength-to-strength, which is why we’re committed to organising and growing this event which has seen record numbers this year. We also give participants access to the platform for a week after the event to complete the challenge and maximise the learning opportunities” said Mr Chammaa.
Participants will be aided by cheat sheets, learning labs and Shearwater’s own security experts.
With Australia facing an increasingly challenging cyber threat environment and a cybersecurity skills shortage, Hackathons are important for up-skilling and encouraging greater industry participation. By bringing together Australian private enterprise, Federal Government and universities, this event represents an important component in Shearwater’s commitment to encourage greater application security awareness.
For further information visit:https://www.shearwater.com.au/hackathon