You can be a part of this event either as an individual or as team of up to four members. As this is a virtual event in 2020, your team can be spread across the country.

You can register as a participant and be part of the crowdsourcing event to generate leads for police on the selected missing person cases. Ticket sales will open at 9am on Tuesday 1 September 2020. The registration link will be on this website.

Alternatively, you can also participate as a ‘judge’. A judge is allocated teams to confirm their submission against the criteria for allocation of points. You do not require investigative or OSINT experience, but the latter does assist. You will be provided with onboarding information by Trace Labs on their CTF platform and what your role will be. Registration to become a judge will open late September 2020.

Tickets are priced at $35 which will include access to OSINT Combine's self-paced foundational training modules.

Due to the generosity of our sponsors, ticket sales will be donated to the Missing Person Advocacy Network (an Australian registered charity) and to Trace Labs to support their mission of reuniting missing persons with family and loved ones.

Of course! No prior knowledge or experience is necessary, but it does help. However, to maximise our chances of providing police with great leads, your registration includes free OSINT foundational training modules.

All you need is your laptop or desktop, wi-fi connection and enough energy for the six hours!

You will receive instructions through Trace labs on how to onboard to their platform and join the Slack community.

The National Missing Persons Coordination Centre holds a central repository for all long-term missing people in Australia. A long-term missing person is someone who has been missing for more than three months.

Cases selected are no more than 10 years old as digital footprints, such as social media, were not as prominent as they are today.

Each case selected has been carefully chosen with approval from relevant state/territory police and is being used with the consent of the family/next of kin.

Only publicly available information will be provided on each missing person case. This has been approved for release by the relevant police jurisdiction.

No sensitive or classified information has been or will be provided for the event.

Each missing person case will have a public URL for participants to access information.

Each missing person case has been verified by police and the person has been officially reported by a family member or friend.

The search for a missing person is undertaken with the consent of the family/next of kin.

Any leads generated will be handed over to the relevant police jurisdiction for their investigation.

A hacker is a person that is attempting to gain unauthorised access to data in a system or computer is illegal.

Ethical hacking is identifying weaknesses in a computer system or network to improve the security of the system and network with a view to protecting the data.

This event is a play on the word ‘hacker’. It is demonstrating ethical cyber skills and its contribution to a crowdsourced event.

In their true form, hackathon’s are theoretical, scenario-based challenges seeking outcomes to a problem, whilst CTF’s are also theoretical, scenario-based challenges but with points awarded for placement.

This hackathon is not theoretical – it is in real time, using real data, with real social impact.

This is a challenge that awards points on actual information generated on missing person cases.

The purpose of this hackathon is to generate leads for police. Police welcome any opportunity for information from the public that could assist in solving cases.

All presented missing person cases have the consent of their family/next of kin.