On August 4, in Las Vegas, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will host the world’s first, all-machine hacking tournament. This Cyber Grand Challenge will mark the culmination of an ambitious three-year effort to develop advanced, autonomous systems that can to detect, evaluate, and patch software vulnerabilities before adversaries have a chance to exploit them.

At the event, seven high-performance computers, developed by seven competing teams composed of white-hat hackers, academics and private-sector cyber systems experts, will engage in an all-day event live in front of thousands of viewers in conjunction with DEF CON, the nation’s largest hacker convention. The last three hours of the event will be accompanied by large-screen visualizations of the competing computers’ actions and will be tracked and explained in real time by a team of sportscasters.

At a ceremony on the morning of August 5, DARPA will award millions of dollars in prizes to the top teams. And in an historic first, the winning cyber system will be invited to compete against the world’s best human hackers in the annual DEF CON Capture the Flag competition that will occur later that day. The event is open to the press and will be livestreamed at www.cybergrandchallenge.com. DARPA will host two press conferences—one in advance of the event and one immediately following its conclusion. Reporters are invited to attend or to call in to listen.

Press Conference #1

WHEN: August 3, 2016, at 6:00 pm PDT (9:00 pm EDT)

WHERE: Paris Hotel and Conference Center, Las Vegas, and by teleconference

WHO: Mike Walker, DARPA program manager overseeing the Cyber Grand Challenge

HOW: Attend in person or call in: 866-692-4538, pass code, 904 848 97#

Press Conference #2

WHEN: August 4, 2016, at 8:15 pm PDT (11:15 pm EDT)

WHERE: Paris Hotel and Conference Center, Las Vegas, and by teleconference

WHO: Arati Prabhakar, DARPA Director, and Mike Walker, DARPA program manager

HOW: Attend in person or call in: 866-692-4538, pass code 904 848 97#

Background: Today’s approach to cybersecurity depends on computer security experts, who identify flaws and threats and remediate them by hand. This process can take over a year from first detection to the deployment of a solution, by which time critical systems may have already been breached. This slow reaction cycle has created a permanent offensive advantage. DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge seeks to automate this cyber defense process, fielding the first generation of machines that can discover, prove and fix software flaws in real-time, without any assistance. If successful, the speed of autonomy could someday blunt the structural advantages of cyber offense.

Note: Several videos are available that introduce the Cyber Grand Challenge and profile the teams.

Introduction to CGC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g5Kt2ayMN0

CSDS team profile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPrJsGhnIKA

Deep Red team profile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi2EolWFxzM

Disekt team profile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrVfyvssPmA

ForAllSecure team profile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4Mvj4SwKLo

Shellphish team profile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y5Myzt7Zaw

TECHx team profile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHdmYY-kyuA

For more information, please visit: www.cybergrandchallenge.com

Twitter: #DARPACGC