In 2017, the world suffered one of the most catastrophic cyberattacks ever known: WannaCry, with Mexico among the hardest-hit countries. At that moment, DanuX decided to create a non-profit tournament where students could learn cybersecurity from their university years in a fun way — and perhaps one day even fly all the finalist teams to a state in Mexico for the grand finale.

Unfortunately, due to the 2017 Mexico City earthquake, ESIME Culhuacán canceled the on-site final. For that reason, the teams listed here are the winners of the qualifying round only for that year.

Grand finale at ESIME Culhuacán! In the last 30 minutes, Zilikos and Puerko from the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas stormed past every team to win it all. Turns out Zacatecas has serious talent!

{l4_p4nd1ll4_m4nt3q1ll4} from ESCOM IPN is born — a team that would go on to become two-time champions! Alongside them, "Los Androides" from UNAM emerged, sparking a rivalry reminiscent of college football. We also saw the rise of UAZ's second generation: HackBUAZ!

The challenge? For the first time, students are "hired" to hack a bank: break in through a phishing attack, move laterally to reach the settlement server where credit cards are stored, decrypt them, and finally exfiltrate them — walking away with money transferred to their own bank accounts!

Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the HackDef 4 grand finale had to be held online.
The final featured a fascinating theme centered on hacking the presidential vote, where contestants had to gain unauthorized access to the electronic voting system to get their candidate elected.

{l4_p4nd1ll4_m4nt3q1ll4} from ESCOM is crowned two-time champion!

For the second consecutive year, the grand finale was held online due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Bichos from UNAM stunned everyone, controlling the final fantastically! And Darkside from UANL finally saw their effort from previous years pay off.

This time, students had to unlock a machine locked by ransomware, move laterally to compromise the attacker's network, then jump into the home's internal router and — boom! — find the physical location of the bad guys' house: zip code 57170!

With a real 700 kg ATM, students had to compromise it and literally make it spit out cash! A new team is born — and would become the next two-time champion: DoomHack from UAZ, who walked away with $15,000 pesos straight out of the hacked machine!

For the first time, HackDef leaves the capital and heads to the north of the country, at Tec de Monterrey! DoomHack repeats as champion, and BlueLegion from Tec Campus Monterrey surprises everyone as Underdog!

The challenge? Find the physical location of "El Jefe," the mastermind running the malicious operations. The winning team ended up calling him directly on his phone — forcing him to unveil his mask!

HackDef arrives in Guadalajara, Jalisco, at the Tec de Monterrey campus, where the near-impossible challenge involved deciphering a heavily obfuscated protocol used by the threat actor Ocelot. Remember last year's underdog, Blue Legion? They were the only ones to crack it — and they took the championship!

Grand finale at ITESM Campus Monterrey! The community and brotherhood are real! Whether you're just starting out or already breaking into systems, there's a place for you here — come be part of the next chapter, test your skills, make lifelong friends, and discover just how far your talent can take you. Join us!