Hi everyone, I hope you all managed to successfully defend your websites and infrastructure from Heartbleeding and Shockshells! Despite all the recent drama, we are delighted to announce Hardening 10 APAC.
Hardening Project is a comprehensive security competition for website hardening; our aim is to discover and award collaborative minds with defending skills and the past three events have achieved considerable success. We anticipate very diverse collaboration at the upcoming Hardening 10 APAC which will be held in Naha, Okinawa. The Hardening Project itself began its journey in April 2012 and has since progressed through Hardening Zero, Hardening One and Hardening One Remix.
Hardening 10 APAC: a security competition like no other
Participants can apply in flexible units of 1, 2 or 4 members, with each team consisting of 6 or 7 members. In other words, all participants will join a fresh new team with at least a few new colleagues like you would experience in a real world situation. Teams compete against each other to harden their problematic website within a given time frame with the goal of maximizing the website’s sales. Through this team effort and race against the clock, teams and their members will discover a variety of skills lacking in themselves: technical response skills against attacks and other failures, comprehensive and balanced skills for communication and progress tracking, and inventive skills for dealing with unexpected situations among others. Each team’s performance will be scored and used when determining the awards.
We are proud to host next event in Naha, Okinawa – strategically located as a hub in the Asia Pacific region and also a place where advanced networks and diverse cultures intersect. We are truly grateful for the kind support and cooperation from the great minds in Okinawa prefecture. Also, this is one of the best times of the year to visit the resort-like picturesque Okinawa which, unlike the Japanese mainland, will not be suffering from constant torrential downpours.
Participants must be present on Hardening Day, June 21st, 2014 10AM sharp, at the Hardening 10 APAC venue in downtown Naha, covering their own travel and accommodation expenses. After a brief introduction, we will begin the 6 hour hardening competition. Softening Day, June 22nd, will be spent primarily learning from each other’s struggles, failed attempts, inventive strategies and technical accomplishments. Participants will also benefit from presentations by our testing team as well as review presentations for each team which will contribute to acquiring essential knowledge for important website operations in many respects. Awards as well as social events will also be scheduled during these two days.
In addition to Hardening 10 APAC, we are also planning another Hardening event on November 8th. Details will be announced at a later date.
Embrace new collaborations.
General Information
How to participate
For this particular event, we have 3 types of application periods. Depending on when you are applying, methods for selection and approval vary, but don’t hesitate to come join us.
Requirements of Hardening 10 APAC applicants
- You cannot participate without disclosing your name. Your affiliation will not be disclosed without your permission. However, from time to time, we may indicate types of industry of individual team or participants in our public communications.
- You must be able to participate at your own cost. You must be healthy (in a pragmatic sense) so that you can participate in this 2-day event without needing special assistance.
- We do not ask ethnicity or nationality as long as you can participate. However, you must be well versed in either English or Japanese in order to understand supplied materials.
- You must be able to participate in both Hardening Day and Softening Day, contributing to review presentation in either a direct or indirect fashion.
- You must preserve the confidentiality of confidential information that is presented by us, including system configuration and technical information.
- If you are under the age of 18, you must be able to prove your parental consent through communication with your parents and supporting documents.
- Throughout this event, you must be able to meet the deadlines for materials requested by us.
- You must understand and agree that scenes from this event will be transmitted by live streaming through the Internet as well as shared via digital photographs.
- You must be able to prepare your own PCs for participation. Network connectivity for each team will be provided by us.
How to apply
If you satisfy the above requirements, you may send an e-mail to: hardening at wasforum.jp, with Subject being “Hardening 10A Application: (Name of representative)”.
Body text must contain the following information:
- Unit of application: Pin (1 person), Pair (2 persons), Team (4 persons)
- Applicants detail for each person: Real name, nick name, phone number for contact, twitter handle, e-mail, and affiliation
- Self introduction and motivation:
If the above contains information that has to remain secret, please indicate as such by writingwhere necessary.
Application deadlines and requirements
The intended target is people in the field of systems operation, security incident response, web systems implementation, and customer support. Professionals, as well as prospective workers in these fields (e.g. students) are welcome.
We have set forth three deadlines with different selection criteria. We will accept 40 people at maximum; we may stop accepting earlier if this limit is reached in advance.
Super Early Birds
Deadline: April 27 Saturday 23:59 JST
Requirement: As long as the application information is complete, your application will be immediately approved in appreciation of your information gathering skills and rapid decision-making which are also critical in incident response. Replies will be given via e-mail in order to ensure delivery and identity.
Note: Nicknames of Super Early Birds will be disclosed. Also be prepared to experience unique fun like no other. Super Early Birds may receive special requests from the steering committee from time to time.
Early birds
Deadline: May 7 Wednesday 17:00 JST
Note: we appreciate your tough decision during the Japanese holiday. Replies will be given via e-mail on May 8. We will review and approve your entry as long as the provided information is complete.
Birds
Deadline: May 21 Wednesday, 17:00
Note: Birds will undergo normal selection process. Replies will be given on May 22.
Come and join the Hardening 10 APAC in OKINAWA!
WASForum Hardening Project Committee