The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will host the world’s first all-machine hacking tournament this week.
The Cyber Grand Challenge marks the culmination of an ambitious three-year effort to develop advanced, autonomous systems that can detect, evaluate and patch software vulnerabilities before competitors have a chance to exploit them.
The event will feature seven competing teams of white-hat hackers, academics and private sector cyber systems experts, as well as seven high-performance computers. Participants will compete in an all-day event live in front of thousands of viewers in conjunction with DEF CON, the nation’s largest hacker convention.
Winners of the competition will be awarded millions of dollars in prizes and will have the opportunity to compete against the world’s best human hackers in the annual DEF CON Capture the Flag competition that will occur the following day. The event will be streamed live at the Cyber Grand Challenge website.
DARPA is an agency within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the U.S. military. DARPA is independent from other military research and development and reports directly to senior DoD management. DARPA-funded projects have significantly influenced technologies outside of the U.S. military as well, specifically in the fields of computer networking and graphical user interfaces.