Shellphish pursues the joy of hacking.
Shellphish is a team of hackers that was founded by Professor Giovanni Vigna at UC Santa Barbara in 2005 to participate in the DEF CON CTF with his graduate students.
Since then, Shellphish has evolved into a group that includes dozens of individuals (students - now professors elsewhere, their students, their friends, visiting researchers, enthusiasts, etc.) who are now spread all across the world, from the United States to France, from China to Austria, from Senegal to Italy.
Shellphish participated in more DEF CON CTF competitions than any other team in the world. In addition, in 2016 Shellphish participated in the DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC) competition with its autonomous hacking system, Mechanical Phish, which is the very first publicly available system of its kind.
Even though its members organize and participate in hacking competitions, Shellphish is more than a hacking team. Shellphish is characterized by a “hackademic” background, and its mission is to explore the science behind hacking, looking for novel approaches to break and fix real-world systems.
Shellphish strives to make every member feel welcome, supported, and safe. Shellphish believes in inclusion, diversity, and the fun that comes with hacking everything.