Ahh, summer conference season. It seems to be the only time of the year when we’ve got so much on our plates we’re trying to procrastinate on that we can write a blog post.

Firstly, last month saw another gathering of Neg9 members for ddtek’s Defcon CTF qualifications. After a long and fun weekend, we ended up in 18th place. Just shy of qualifying, we scored a total of 3600 points and a spot on the initial list of alternates. Placing 18th out of 303 scoring teams is, while disappointing, an achievement we’re quite proud of and an improvement from last year.

We’d also like to congratulate our good friends Team Hillarious from the University of Washington who won this year’s NCCDC and prequalified for Defcon CTF. They’re in for the time of their lives at Defcon this year (many of them have never been to the con) and we wish them the best of luck in the games.

Finally, there’s the craziness of the coming months. Various members of Neg9 will be attending HOPE Number Nine, of course Defcon, ToorCamp, and ToorCon San Diego in the coming months. Watch this space for news of talks and workshops being presented by Neg9 members at these conferences.

Also, after the summer travels wind down, look for announcements of resuming regular Neg9 meetings. We’ve been lazy on this front for a while but we all benefit from getting together and sharing knowledge, tips, tricks and original research. And now it’s in writing, so we have to do it.