Three University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa students have advanced to the finals of one of the most prestigious cybersecurity competitions in the world—DEF CON CTF (Capture the Flag)—after placing fifth in the global qualifying round held online in April.
The students—Ethan Morrell, Juliette Raubolt and Nathan Wong—are computer science majors in the Department of Information and Computer Sciences in the College of Natural Sciences and members of Grey Hats, a UH Mānoa cybersecurity club.
They joined forces with Shellphish, a veteran team, to compete in the DEF CON CTF qualifier, an intense 48-hour event that drew nearly 200 top-tier teams from around the world. The competition challenged participants to solve complex puzzles in reverse engineering, hacking and digital forensics—all part of the real-world skillset used by cybersecurity professionals to detect vulnerabilities, protect data and respond to cyber threats.
“This experience has been invaluable in applying what we’ve learned in class to real-world challenges,” Morrell said. “I am grateful to have been part of such an amazing team.”
Now, they’re preparing for the DEF CON finals in August, where the top eight teams will face off in a live, head-to-head showdown in Las Vegas. Unlike the qualifier’s “Jeopardy-style” format, the finals require teams to simultaneously defend their systems while launching attacks against others—closely simulating the kind of adversarial scenarios cybersecurity experts face in high-stakes environments.
For the UH students, this experience goes beyond bragging rights. It’s a rare, hands-on opportunity to apply classroom theory in one of the most demanding real-world settings, opening doors to competitive careers in national security, tech and beyond.
