The Korea Drone Security Association (KDSA) will host a drone hacking competition on December 1 at Kyung Hee University, Seoul.
To encourage preparedness in the race to defend drone systems against attacks from malicious actors, the KDSA will host its “Hack the DRONE Festival” this year.
The competition will give security experts the opportunity to prove their skills in identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities specific to the hacking of drones.
The preliminary round of the competition will run from November 1 through November 17, during which time participants will be challenged to complete a series of missions with the objective of reversing and analyzing drone systems. Participants will be awarded points for this task not solely on completing the missions, however. They must also detail the steps that led them to their results in a written report, with the most detailed reports receiving the highest scores.
![](http://legacy.thereadable.co/content/images/2023/10/Hack-the-drone-high.png)
The top five teams from the preliminary competition will qualify to compete in the final round, which will take place on December 1. In this challenge, participants will be tasked with engaging with and hacking into actual drones in full operation.
A total of 8,000,000 won (approximately $6,000) will be awarded to the top three teams in the name of the Minister of Science and ICT, the Director of the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), and the President of the Korea Information Security Industry Association.
“Our aim in holding this competition is to enhance our defensive capabilities in connection to the specific vulnerabilities of drones,” said Yu Young-yl, President of the KDSA and CEO of Teruten. “The KDSA strives to encourage drone security and related research by supporting experts working in the field, and we will continue to do so,” added Yu.
This event is co-organized by the cybersecurity company Teruten and the Graduate School of Security Convergence at Kyung Hee University.