{"676113":{"#nid":"676113","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Cybersecurity Team Wins $2 Million in Grand Challenge Semi-Final","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFor three days, a cybercriminal unleashed a crippling ransomware attack on the futuristic city of Northbridge. The attack shut down the city\u2019s infrastructure and severely impacted public services, until Georgia Tech cybersecurity experts stepped in to stop it.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis scenario played out this weekend at the DARPA \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/aicyberchallenge.com\/home\/\u0022\u003EAI Cyber Challenge\u003C\/a\u003E (AIxCC) semi-final competition held at DEF CON 32 in Las Vegas. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/team-atlanta.github.io\/\u0022\u003ETeam Atlanta\u003C\/a\u003E, which included the Georgia Tech experts, were among the contest\u2019s winners. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETeam Atlanta will now compete against six other teams in the final round that takes place at DEF CON 33 in August 2025. The finalists will keep their AI system and improve it over the next 12 months using the $2 million semi-final prize.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe AI systems in the finals must be open sourced and ready for immediate, real-world launch. The AIxCC final competition will award a $4 million grand prize to the ultimate champion.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETeam Atlanta is made up of past and present Georgia Tech students and was put together with the help of SCP Professor Taesoo Kim. Not only did the team secure a spot in the final competition, they found a zero-day vulnerability in the contest.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI am incredibly proud to announce that Team Atlanta has qualified for the finals in the DARPA AIxCC competition,\u201d said Taesoo Kim, professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scp.cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/a\u003E and a vice president of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.samsung.com\/\u0022\u003ESamsung Research\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis achievement is the result of exceptional collaboration across various organizations, including the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/gtri.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech Research Institute\u003C\/a\u003E (GTRI), industry partners like Samsung, and international academic institutions such as \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.kaist.ac.kr\/en\/\u0022\u003EKAIST\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.postech.ac.kr\/kor\/\u0022\u003EPOSTECH\u003C\/a\u003E.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter noticing discrepancies in the competition score board, the team discovered and reported a bug in the competition itself. The type of vulnerability they discovered is known as a zero-day vulnerability, because vendors have zero days to fix the issue.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile this didn\u2019t earn Team Atlanta additional points, the competition organizer acknowledged the team and their finding during the closing ceremony.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur team, deeply rooted in Atlanta and largely composed of Georgia Tech alumni, embodies the innovative spirit and community values that define our city,\u201d said Kim.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWith over 30 dedicated students and researchers, we have demonstrated the power of cross-disciplinary teamwork in the semi-final event. As we advance to the finals, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, and I firmly believe the resulting systems from this competition will transform the security landscape in the coming year!\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team tested their cyber reasoning system (CRS), dubbed Atlantis, on software used for data management, website support, healthcare systems, supply chains, electrical grids, transportation, and other critical infrastructures.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAtlantis is a next-generation, bug-finding and fixing system that can hunt bugs in multiple coding languages. The system immediately issues accurate software patches without any human intervention.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAIxCC is a Pentagon-backed initiative that was announced in August 2023 and will award up to $20 million in prize money throughout the competition. Team Atlanta was among the 42 teams that qualified for the semi-final competition earlier this year.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA group of Georgia Tech students and alumni were named finalists at the DARPA \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/aicyberchallenge.com\/home\/\u0022\u003EAI Cyber Challenge\u003C\/a\u003E (AIxCC) semi-final competition held at DEF CON 32 in Las Vegas.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETeam Atlanta, which included the Georgia Tech experts, will now compete against six other teams in the final round that takes place at DEF CON 33 in August 2025. The finalists will keep their AI system and improve it over the next 12 months using the $2 million semi-final prize.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A group of Georgia Tech students and alumni were among the winners of $2 million in DARPA\u0027s AI Cyber Challenge and will compete in the final competition next August."}],"uid":"36253","created_gmt":"2024-08-20 17:02:50","changed_gmt":"2024-08-20 17:21:38","author":"John Popham","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-08-20T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-08-20T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"674659":{"id":"674659","type":"image","title":"Team-ATL-Header.jpg","body":null,"created":"1724173551","gmt_created":"2024-08-20 17:05:51","changed":"1724173551","gmt_changed":"2024-08-20 17:05:51","alt":"Group photo of Team Atlanta","file":{"fid":"258211","name":"Team-ATL-Header.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/08\/20\/Team-ATL-Header.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/08\/20\/Team-ATL-Header.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1537665,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/08\/20\/Team-ATL-Header.jpg?itok=MFdlHMEN"}}},"media_ids":["674659"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"660373","name":"School of Cybersecurity \u0026 Privacy (Do not use)"},{"id":"660367","name":"School of Cybersecurity and Privacy"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"193157","name":"Student Honors and Achievements"}],"keywords":[{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"186861","name":"go-cyber"},{"id":"101331","name":"#IamGTComputing"},{"id":"506","name":"alumni"},{"id":"166847","name":"students"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"},{"id":"1506","name":"faculty"},{"id":"187812","name":"artificial intelligence (AI)"},{"id":"1404","name":"Cybersecurity"},{"id":"188016","name":"cybersecurity attack"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"},{"id":"193653","name":"Georgia Tech Research Institute"},{"id":"39481","name":"National Security"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"},{"id":"39541","name":"Systems"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJohn Popham\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECommunications Officer II at the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jpopham3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}