FSS white hackers sweep 2nd through 4th place at DEF CON CTF 34

The Financial Security Institute said Monday that its white-hat hackers placed among the top finishers at DEF CON CTF 34, the world's most prestigious hacking competition, held in Las Vegas, demonstrating world-class cybersecurity capabilities.

Six white-hat hackers affiliated with the institute, including members of its elite RED IRIS unit, competed as part of three alliance teams and claimed podium finishes. Institute staff had placed third in the DEF CON CTF finals in both 2024 and 2025, and this year they went further, securing second, third and fourth place to showcase their standing among the world's top cybersecurity talent.

The DEF CON CTF finals bring together 12 of the world's top teams over three days in an attack-and-defense format, where competitors earn points by breaching opponents' systems while simultaneously identifying and patching vulnerabilities in their own. Participants compete across a broad range of security disciplines, including vulnerability analysis, reverse engineering — the technique of analyzing a program to understand its internal structure and logic — exploit development, and real-time defense.

The institute's white-hat hackers demonstrated not only offensive skills such as vulnerability analysis and exploitation, but also proficiency in AI-assisted techniques, an emerging trend at recent DEF CON CTF competitions.

The institute plans to use the security knowledge and hands-on experience gained at DEF CON CTF 34 to strengthen the financial sector's defenses against increasingly sophisticated AI-driven cyber threats. It will focus on leveraging the RED IRIS unit's competition experience to sharpen its penetration testing and security assessment capabilities, and to support broader cybersecurity improvements across the financial industry.

Park Sang-won, president of the Financial Security Institute, said the results reflected the institute's sustained investment in recruiting and developing world-class security professionals. "We will continue to actively support international technology exchange through participation in global hacking competitions and security conferences, and will spread the experience and technology we have accumulated throughout the financial sector to proactively address new security threats in the AI era," Park said.