KU white hackers surprise the world again
DefKor, a white hacking team from Korea University, claims winner in CODEGATE2018
First win by a Korean team in five years

DefKor, a white hacking team from Korea University, clinched the top prize in the CODEGATE2018 International Hacking Competition.

The winning team received the Science and ICT Minister Award and prize money of KRW 30 million. DefKor is a team spun off from CyKor, KU’s white hacking club. DefKor consists of three students from the Department of Cyber Defense of KU and one research team head from Raon Secure. Lee Jong-ho, the research team head, also studied at KU’s Graduate School of Information Security.

DefKor had an uphill battle during the competition. They were sometimes falling behind the PPP, which was recognized as the most likely winner from the US. However, DefKor did not lose focus until the end and came from behind at the last minute to beat the PPP. It has been five years since a Korean team took first place in the senior competition in 2013.

Kim Gyu-hyeon (alias*), a member of DefKor, said, “We have always been prepared to achieve good results. As students usually take mock exams or solve sample questions before taking a test, we have analyzed and studied the previous competitions whenever we could. That’s why we were able to win this competition.”

* Due to a special agreement between the Department of Cyber Defense and the Ministry of Defense, the students of the Department use aliases, not revealing their identities to the public.

As the team members are about to graduate from the school, they plan to focus on research work as well developing a quality thesis.

CODEGATE is an annual international hacking competition and global IT and security conference, which was launched in 2007. The event was packed with over 5,000 visitors, including 1,000 students, this year. Thousands of white hackers and security experts from dozens of countries across the world participated in the competition, while discussions, lectures and trainings on cyber security issues were held at the conference.