Media Coverage

Trend Micro Incorporated announced the winners of its fall Pwn2Own competition held through the Zero Day Initiative. $989,750 in prizes were awarded throughout the event with the purchase of 63 unique zero days. The real-world impact if these vulnerabilities were weaponized would amount to 10x in time, data and financial loss.

Security researchers picked up US$989,750 in prizes for demonstrating 63 unique zero day vulnerabilities in consumer and small office products during the four-day Toronto edition of the Pwn2Own hacking contest. The biggest bundle of cash went to a team from Devcore Security Consulting of Taiwan, which won US$142,500. As a result it was named the event’s Master of Pwn. It was the first time the contest, run under Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative, was held in Toronto. Teams or individuals competed either live at Trend Micro’s Toronto office or online.

Just shy of US$1 million in prize money was awarded to security researchers at the end of the four-day Pwn2Own hacking contest in Toronto. In this edition of the event, sponsored by Trend Micro, participants demonstrated 63 unique zero-day exploits by breaking into home and small office routers and printers. The biggest bundle of cash went to a team from Devcore Security Consulting of Taiwan, which won US$142,500. As a result it was named the event’s Master of Pwn. The total amount awarded to all participants was $989,750. The biggest payout of the series was at the 2021 event in Vancouver, where participants won US$1.2 million. The next competition will be in Miami in February.

After two days of the Toronto edition of the Pwn2Own hacking contest, individuals and teams had won almost US$800,000 in cash prizes, with the expectation that more than US$1 million might be awarded by the time the event ends. Hardware and software manufacturers learn where vulnerabilities are in their products from hacking contests like this. The next Pwn2Own contest will be held in Miami in February.

The first Toronto edition of Trend Micro’s Pwn2Own hacking contest took Palce from Dec 6-8, 2022, with individuals or teams from a number of countries attempting to break into consumer products in hopes of winning a share of hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes. Within two hours, two teams had each won US$20,000. By the end of the day US$400,000 had been awarded for the discovery of 26 bugs. In an interview with IT World Canada Dustin Childs, head of threat awareness at Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative, shared more on the goals of the competition, why it’s being held in Toronto and what Trend has learned from recent competitions.