ACE Hackware Announces Sponsorship Of Social Engineering Contest At DefCon 23 Hacking Conference

Atlanta, GA based security tools supplier ACE Hackware announced that they will be a sponsor of the Social Engineering Capture the Flag Contest (SECTF) at the upcoming DEF CON 23 conference. This will be the company's third consecutive year of sponsorship. DEF CON is the world's largest annual hacking conference, which will take place August 6-9, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada with more than 20,000 attendees expected. More about DEF CON 23 can be viewed at http://defcon.org.

"This unique event is designed to challenge contestants to use social engineering skills to gather data from unsuspecting companies over the phone," says Christopher Hadnagy, creator of the competition. Dubbed "the art of human hacking," social engineering is a non-technical means used by hackers that relies on deception, misdirection and psychological tactics to trick people into disregarding normal security procedures. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest security threats that modern organizations face, and the SECTF competition helps to highlight the necessity of addressing this risk while providing both entertainment and educational value to its participants and attendees.

More about the SECTF competition, including instructions on how to register, can be seen at http://www.social-engineer.org/ctf/def-con-23-sectf-rules-registration/. 

"I go every year," says Randy Elson. "It's a great place to meet people who share the same interests, and to just have a little fun while learning."

ACE Hackware is the preeminent supplier of specialized tools for social engineering and professional hacking for use by ethical hackers, security teams, and law enforcement to circumvent security measures in order to identify vulnerabilities and countermeasures. A list of the company's offerings can be seen at http://acehackware.com/collections/hackware. 

As long-time members of the information security community and ACE Hackware's Chief Hacktologists, founder Taylor Banks and cohort Kevin Miller have attended, presented and vended at the conference since 1999, and now volunteer full time as part of the conference's core security team. "When we're not working," says Miller, "you can bet we'll be over at the The Social-Engineer Village watching the shenanigans."

Since 2011, ACE Hackware has earned acclaim from thousands of customers including state and federal agencies, international computer crime and information security specialists, law enforcement agencies, and certified locksmiths, and continues to be the security community's favored supplier of lock picks, bump keys, ethical hacking tools and spy gear for security professionals and researchers.

ACE will provide ethical hacking, lock circumvention and hidden surveillance tools to be awarded to winning contestants in the SECTF competition. "We couldn't be more excited about it," states Banks. "We love supporting and sponsoring this competition every year, and can't wait to see the turnout. Each year more and more people participate, so this year's event should be amazing."