Ethical hackers unite to find missing persons

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.

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.