HACKINT

I presented an idea to some of the members of AFCEA Chapter 158 at Ramstein AB, Germany and got a positive response so I want to share what’s going on with hackINT right now.  Every year there is a Summer Tech Expo at Ramstein Air Base that shows off the latest in military communications technology to the base and raises money through vendor fees that goes entirely towards free education scholarships for military members and their families in the region. Last year I hosted hackINT Con 2012 there with a capture the flag contest.  This year, I wanted to step it up some and get more training out there to people.  So what hackINT will be doing in partnership with AFCEA Chapter 158 is hosting a four day training session followed by a competition.

How it’ll work: Numerous Commanders of Communications Squadrons around Ramstein Air Base are going to send 4 students who are interested to 4 days of training.  The training will take place June 29/30 and July 13/14. Commanders are going to give the members day passes so that they can still get time off at a later date for giving up their Saturday and Sunday. The training will be a holistic approach of teaching all four core disciplines at hackINT: Forensics, Intelligence, Hacking, and Defense. I’m currently developing a few extra classes so I can teach all four disciplines and will debut them at this training event. Students will take a skills measuring test before and after the training so that some sort of metric can be obtained on how they performed and how they felt their skills developed.  At the end of the training, at the Summer Tech Expo, there will be a competition where students will have to use all four disciplines to gain points and win.  The teams will be made up of the Squadrons’ members that attended the training.

This is going to be a huge event and so far has a number of Squadrons already participating. So to not take away from the event and to give it my full focus I will be putting all my time in hackINT towards this event.  Post this event there will be more classes offered to the public including those debuted at the training event.

Thanks!

Robert

Tom Hamlyn was kind enough to take pictures during the HACKINT 2012 competition which are posted below.  At the next AFCEA luncheon we’ll be presenting an award to each of the team members from Team TracerT for taking first place in the competition.  They were truly an awesome group and the AF is lucky to have such skilled operators.  More importantly they were humble and helped out the other teams’ members who were less trained when they ran into issues.  I’ve never seen that at a hacking competition before and was proud to have it happen amongst Air Force members.

Eric Trombly and I have been working hard to finalize the edits to the Fundamentals of Hacking class.  The next offering (already full) is August 4th and it will be one of the last times I teach the Fundamentals of Hacking class at Ramstein AB.  Eric has proven to be incredibly competent and passionate about teaching so he will be taking over the reins of the class at Ramstein which will allow the class to be taught more often.  I will take the class and be teaching around the Frankfurt area where I currently live.  Furthermore, I’m going to start working on a Forensics class now that the Fundamentals of Hacking class is at a solid state.

There are others who have approached HACKINT about becoming instructors and teaching the class at their location; very exciting!  We will be incorporating a new system at HACKINT where we have Assistant Instructors, Instructors and Lead Instructors.  An Assistant Instructor is someone who wants to volunteer/help out teaching alongside an Instructor.  After an Assistant Instructor teaches alongside an Instructor for a few classes they can become an Instructor and teach on their own.  A Lead Instructor is someone who develops/guides a course and how it is developed and carried on.  All along the way those who help teach at every level will (besides just doing good work for the future generation) be rewarded with professional references and resume building material from the HACKINT staff.

All in all we at HACKINT are very excited about the level of support not only from the Ramstein AB and AFCEA community but those who have reached out with support from outside our community.  Thanks again and all the best!

Setting up for HACKINT 2012

Team TracerT getting setup before the competition

Announcing the rules before the competition kicks off

Today Eric Trombly and I ran the HACKINT 2012 competition which was a king of the hill styled hacking competition. We were fortunate enough to host it at the Ramstein AB Tech Expo with the support of AFCEA Chapter 158 and its members.

The event went surprisingly smooth overall and we had three teams made of members from squadrons across the base.  The TracerT team came in first overall with Hacknots and Arp both coming in second place.

More details and pictures will come later including those from the awards ceremony which will occur at next month’s AFCEA Chapter 158 monthly luncheon.

There was also a lot of great support and interest in HACKINT and the classes we teach.  Eric and I are working on a way now to be able to offer more classes both at Ramstein AB and in the Frankfurt area. More details to come.

Overall I just want to thank everyone again for participating and helping out. The first year of anything is usually rough and I was expecting more trouble hosting the first HACKINT hacking competition, however it went very well because of the support received. Once again congrats to Team TracerT for winning this year’s competition!

Next week at the Ramstein AB AFCEA Technology Expo HACKINT will be hosting it’s first ever hacking challenge.  This year’s hacking challenge will focus on a King-of-the-Hill style competition where teams will compete for control of computers and servers for points.  The event will take place July 18th and at this point we have four teams from around the base competing.  Competitions like this not only encourage people to get involved and learn about cyber but also provide a legal way for hackers to showcase their skills.  If all goes well, fingers crossed, this will be a great event and I’m excited to be a part of it.  I want to thank all the members around Ramstein who have helped put this together and thank you to the teams who have signed up to compete.

More information to follow next week…