National Missing Persons Hackathon

On Friday 13 September, 646 participants across Australia and online, took part in the 2024 National Missing Persons Hackathon (the hackathon). The event was hosted in each capital city, with the main event held at Tech Central Scaleup Hub in Sydney.

The hackathon was first delivered in 2019 in partnership with the AFP’s National Missing Persons Coordination Centre (NMPCC). It was the world’s first large-scale, crowdsourced open-source intelligence (OSINT) gathering of its kind in Australia for missing persons.

This year NMPCC supported the event by working with state and territory police to identify suitable missing persons cases to be featured in the ‘capture the flag’ competition. Five missing persons cases were presented to participants to begin sourcing intelligence and potential leads during the 6-hour event. 

NMPCC members attended the Sydney and Canberra events, while Commander Graeme Marshall and Detective Superintendent Peter Chwal from Western Command attended the event in Perth.

A total of 500 reports with new leads were submitted by participants to a panel of judges who verified the information and allocated points. 

Winners of the hackathon were announced on Monday 23 September with first place going to Phish & Chips who attended virtually, second place went to Tasmanian team Thick Thighs Saving Lives, third place went to Victorian team to Gridware and fourth place to South Australian team 5. Prizes included challenge coins and OSINT training. 

All leads are being collated by Hackathon case managers and NMPCC. Information will be shared with relevant jurisdictions to assist with each missing person’s case.
 

For the second year running the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre (NMPCC) will partner with AustCyber and non-profit Canadian based organisation Trace Labs to host the second Australian National Missing Persons Hackathon on Thursday 29th October 2020.

Last year the National Missing Persons Hackathon was held in October as part of Australian Cyber Week 2019 and saw over 350 participants across ten locations come together to generate more than 3900 leads for 12 national missing person cases for Australian police.

The 6-hour event was a huge success and resulted in:

• 354 participants across 96 teams
• 3912 total leads generated
• Average of 10 leads submitted by contestants every minute
• 50 volunteer judges vetting leads in real time

This year the event will once again be held during ‘Australian Cyber Week’ and due to COVID-19 restrictions, will be hosted virtually from one central location in Canberra, with members from AustCyber, AFP and the NMPCC in attendance.

Contestants will be presented with 12 Australian long-term missing person’s cases and be tasked with collecting information using their online investigative techniques. The contestants will use their cyber skills to uncover open source intelligence (OSINT) on the missing persons in a bid to gather information and leads using only publicly available information. The intention of this event is to generate new leads on the 12 cases involved and to raise awareness on the issue of missingness in Australia.

All leads identified on the missing persons will be provided to the NMPCC and further distributed to the relevant State and Territory police for investigation.

Participants can take part either individually or as part of a team of up to 4 people. Points will be awarded to contestants for each piece of information submitted on any of the missing persons that falls into one of the eligible categories. The information will be validated by a panel of volunteer judges prior to points being awarded. At the closing of the event, the top 3 teams/individuals with the most points will be awarded with a National Missing Persons Hackathon prize, which has been generously donated by a range of sponsors.

This event is a not-for-profit event and all ticket sales will be donated evenly between the Missing Persons Advocacy Network and Trace Labs.

If you have missed out on a ticket there is still the option to register for the live stream which will enable you to watch the day’s proceedings unfold in real time.

The live stream will begin at 10:00 (AEDT) and close at 19:00 (AEDT) on Thursday 29 October 2020.

In what will be considered a world first, today 354 participants will gather across ten locations in Australia to generate leads for 12 national missing person cases for the Australian police.

The AustCyber Canberra Cyber Security Innovation Node has partnered with the Australian Federal Police, the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre and Trace Labs to deliver the first ever National Missing Persons Hackathon in Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Darwin, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth.

Today’s event will see the gathering of ethical hackers and investigators using online investigative techniques within the bounds of the law to find new leads on real missing persons cases in Australia. Contestants will be using their cyber skills to gather open source intelligence (OSINT) on long-term missing persons using only information that is publicly available on the internet. The goal of this is to generate new leads on cases that can provide assistance to the relevant Australian policing jurisdictions in their investigations.

“This is the first large-scale, crowdsourced open-source intelligence gathering of its kind in Australia for missing persons, and a first for a country to participate simultaneously in this manner,” said Linda Cavanagh, Manager of the Canberra Cyber Security Innovation Node.

“This is where innovation brings social value, creating an event which is unlike any other hackathon or capture the flag (CTF) challenge. Theoretical concepts are put aside so participants can operate in real time, with real (open source) data for real human impact.”

ACT is host to the main event, which will be live streamed to all participating locations.

Twelve missing persons will be selected from existing National Missing Person Coordination Centre cases for participants to collect OSINT on and to generate new information. All leads generated on the missing person cases will be handed to the Australian Federal Police and National Missing Persons Coordination Centre after the completion of the event.

“Police often say that the community are our eyes and ears. We’re taking this concept to a new level,” said Assistant Commissioner Debbie Platz.

“By involving the community, and in this case hackers, into the search for missing persons, we hope to solve more long-term missing person cases in a way that police could not do alone.”

The concept of this crowdsourced platform originates from not-for-profit organisation Trace Labs. They have delivered their CTF model throughout Canada and the United States, but this is first time they’ve run simultaneous events across a whole country.

“Our goal is to partner with law enforcement and organisations like AustCyber on crowdsourced intelligence initiatives to enhance public safety around the world and enable the community to be involved in tackling complex social issues” said Adrian Korn, Director of OSINT Operations & Strategic Initiatives at Trace Labs.

The partnership between the AustCyber Canberra Node, Australian Federal Police, National Missing Persons Coordination Centre and Trace Labs demonstrates the value they bring together, including:

• harnessing the Australian community to generate leads and assist police in their investigations on missing person cases;
• showcasing the different elements to cyber security such as ‘ethical hackers’;
• highlighting the diversity of cyber security careers, skills and the people who hold them; and
• demonstrating cyber security crowdsourcing as a technical value add element to law enforcement as well as a social value add element to the community.

The National Sponsors of the event are Telstra, Fifth Domain, Australian Information Security Association, and in partnership, the Commonwealth Bank and University of New South Wales SECEdu.

The National Missing Persons Hackathon is held during Australian Cyber Week 2019, which runs from 7-11 October 2019.

AustCyber Canberra Cyber Security Innovation Node (Canberra Node)

The establishment of the Canberra Node is intended to strengthen the ACT region’s cyber security industry and align with the priority actions identified in AustCyber’s Sector Competitiveness Plan. It is a partnership between AustCyber and ACT Government.

The Canberra Node’s strategic work plan identifies three principles to provide a proactive approach in addressing issues identified in the ACT, including:

fostering collaboration among government, private sector and academia to create a sharper focus towards innovation and growth;
identifying opportunities to increase the supply of talent, enhance capacity of the existing workforce and strengthen educational pathways; and
developing a strong and confident ecosystem that supports creating mature, market-ready and competitive local businesses.
Website: https://www.austcyber.com/