CODEGATE 2023 to take place in August at COEX in Seoul

CODEGATE 2023, a global information technology (IT) and security conference, will be held at COEX in southern Seoul in August, gathering security experts and potential white hackers from around the world to engage in a competition.

CODEGATE, now in its 15th year, was founded by Hancom Group Chairman Kim Sang-chul with the banner of fostering global security talent. It has grown into one of the world’s two major hacking defense competitions alongside DEF CON in the U.S.

It is now positioned as a gateway to security talent by producing the best white hackers in Korea, such as Park Se-joon, who founded security firm Theori.

Last year’s first-place winner in the general individual group, Im Jun-oh of The Duck team, participated in the junior category of CODEGATE as a high school student in 2017.

This year’s competition has attracted attention from white hackers around the world by significantly increasing the prize money for the first place in the general individual category from 30 million won ($23,214) to 50 million won.

CODEGATE Security Forum is accepting applications for the online qualifiers through its website until June 17 ahead of the main competition on Aug. 24-25.

The qualifiers will be held online on June 17-18 in three categories: general, college, and junior. Last year’s qualifiers attracted 2,872 teams from 48 countries.

According to the organizer, students in the junior group have been scoring higher despite the increasing difficulty of the problems year after year.

The global security conference designed to deliver the latest security trends and insights will feature leading domestic and international speakers on the topic of security paradigms in the era of artificial intelligence (AI).

Keynote speakers in the past events included Audrey Tang, Taiwanese Minister of Digital Affairs, Jeff Moss, Founder of DEF CON, Eugene Aseev, Co-Founder of Chainstack, and Damien Stehlé, professor at l’ENS de Lyon, France.