The winning NUSeXcel team with fellow participants from the Red Team village at DEF CON 33. (Photo: HTX/Tay Sze Ying)
A joint team from HTX’s xCybersecurity enterprise group and the National University of Singapore (NUS) Greyhats – an information security interest group – clinched first place in a Capture the Flag (CTF) competition at ethical hacking and cybersecurity conference DEF CON 33. The event took place from August 7 to 10 in Las Vegas, USA.
Competing under the banner NUSeXcel in the Red Team village, the team spent 48 hours tackling 40 complex hacking challenges in a high-stakes contest that emphasised offensive cybersecurity skills. These involved simulating real-world cyberattacks to uncover and exploit vulnerabilities in systems, applications and networks – crucial capabilities for strengthening defences in public safety.
While three HTX xCybersecurity engineers and four NUS Greyhats members were present at the event held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the team was supported by their counterparts in Singapore, including four additional xCybersecurity engineers and a larger group from the NUS Greyhats.
Acting Deputy Director, Advanced Cyber Capabilities at xCybersecurity, Lawrence Wong – who was the CTF Manager – highlighted that “excellent teamwork and leveraging one another’s strengths” were key to their success in clearing all 40 challenges ahead of other competitors.
From left: Lawrence Wong, Garen Tan Wei Shin, Ng Kok Wah, Ernest Lim Zihong. (Photo: HTX/Evelyn Ho)
This marks xCybersecurity’s second participation in DEF CON – an annual gathering at the intersection of innovation and public safety, featuring technical talks, hands-on “hacking villages”, and CTF contests.
“CTF competitions are valuable for securing critical systems because they replicate real-world cyberattack and defence scenarios in a controlled environment, helping both individuals and organisations build capabilities that directly apply to protecting vital infrastructure,” said Lawrence, who mentored the team.
DEF CON 33 featured more than 20 CTF competitions, which typically present challenges such as reverse engineering code, or decrypting data.
Team NUSeXcel with HTX Chief Executive Chan Tsan (sixth from left) at DEF CON 33. (Photo: HTX/Evelyn Ho)
Notably, the event set the stage for the inaugural DEF CON SG, which will be held at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands from April 28 to 30, 2026 – thanks to an agreement between HTX and DEF CON that was inked at this year’s conference. “We’re going to really try to build community, and we’ll do calls for papers and workshops that will open within the next month,” announced DEF CON founder Jeff Moss at the close of the event.
DEF CON SG will take place alongside the upcoming Milipol TechX Summit (MTX), which is expected to draw some 15,000 visitors – including top government officials, operational experts, industry leaders, and academia from around the world – to collaborate with the international public safety community.
