{"id":31685,"date":"2025-09-30T10:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T03:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgu.ac.id\/?p=31685"},"modified":"2025-10-01T09:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T02:41:13","slug":"rootcon-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgu.ac.id\/id\/rootcon-19\/","title":{"rendered":"ROOTCON 19: Hacking, Learning, and Networking Across Borders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Dr. Semi Yulianto<\/strong><\/p>\n

Swiss German University Master of IT program Lecturer
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Late September 2025 marked a special milestone for our team (a group of 5 persons) from Indonesia: we travelled to the Philippines to attend ROOTCON 19<\/strong>, the country’s premier hacking and information security conference. Our goals were simple yet ambitious—learn about new offensive techniques, emerging threats, and cutting-edge tools, and connect with peers across the region. ROOTCON 19 delivered on all counts.<\/p>\n

ROOTCON at a Glance<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Founded in 2008, ROOTCON has evolved from a local meet-up into a regional hub for hackers and security researchers across Asia and beyond<\/strong> [1]. Its name merges “root,” the Unix\/Linux superuser, and “con,” short for conference, reflecting its hacker culture origins. Over the years, ROOTCON has become known for its strong technical content, vibrant villages, and hands-on learning opportunities [2].<\/p>\n

This year’s edition carried the theme “Augmented Threats,”<\/strong> highlighting how artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and adversarial machine learning (ML) are transforming the cyber-threat landscape<\/strong> [3]. The event ran 24–26 September 2025<\/strong> at the Royce Hotel in Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga, featuring keynotes, workshops, villages, Capture-the-Flag (CTF) contests, and exclusive Day 0 sessions.<\/p>\n

On the Ground with Team Indonesia<\/strong><\/h2>\n

We landed at Manila’s NAIA Terminal 1 on 22 September and made the smooth journey to Clark. The Royce Hotel venue impressed us with its spacious halls, reliable Wi-Fi, ample power outlets, and thoughtful layout<\/strong>—critical for a tech-heavy event hosting hundreds of participants.<\/p>\n

Our team divided passes strategically: three members chose the Human+ track<\/strong> (which grants Day 0 access), while two took the Human pass<\/strong> for general admission. Day 0 offered exclusive workshops; our Human+ subgroup joined the Red Teaming training<\/strong>, a challenging and highly interactive session that sharpened our offensive security skills [4]. Meanwhile, the rest of the team used Day 0 to network and explore villages before the official opening.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t

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Highlights and Takeaways<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Keynote talks on AI-driven attacks, ICS\/OT exploitation, reverse engineering, and advanced threat intelligence<\/strong> drew large crowds, occasionally making it hard to follow every detail. We often gravitated toward the villages—hardware hacking, red teaming, and lockpicking—where smaller groups enabled deeper discussion and hands-on exploration<\/strong>. Sessions on the fusion of AI with red teaming tactics were especially eye-opening, aligning with broader industry concerns that adversarial ML is accelerating the sophistication of cyberattacks [5].<\/p>\n

ROOTCON is proudly community-driven<\/strong>, and that spirit was palpable. Whether during coffee breaks or hallway chats, we connected with participants from the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and beyond. Conversations ranged from open-source tooling<\/strong> to joint CTF initiatives and potential collaborative research projects—reminding us that cybersecurity progress thrives on cross-border partnerships<\/strong> [6].<\/p>\n

Lessons Learned<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As with any large conference, we encountered a few hiccups: crowded hallways, occasional Wi-Fi dips, and overlapping sessions. Yet these were minor compared with the overall value. ROOTCON 19 left us with clear takeaways:<\/p>\n