Community update #1 - 2023

Dear Community,

Welcome to the first edition of the Hack The Box (HTB) community update! We'll recap what's happened in the HTB universe, share exciting news, and give you a behind-the-scenes look at upcoming initiatives.

The team has been hard at work implementing changes and updates that we know you're going to love. So with a major update to our ranking system, and Cyber Apocalypse 2023 coming to a close, the next few months will be full of action-packed events, meetups, and CTFs…

Are you ready?! 

HTB Seasons are here to stay

In February, we announced a major update for the entire HTB multiverse. We decided to refresh and improve our ranking system, moving from a static way of assigning points, to a seasonal mode: hackers, meet HTB Seasons!

A Season is a defined timeframe over which a number of Machines will be released. Each Machine will be live as part of the Season for one week. After that week, the Machine will still be playable as an Active Machine, but solving it will not generate points for the Season. The first Season (still an Open Beta version) was launched on March 4th and will go on until May 27th. 

If you didn’t have time to play until now, this is the time to try it! With HTB Seasons, everyone has the opportunity to rank up and win awesome prizes. You only need to own four (4) flags to get rewarded with a $10 HTB gift card. 

Play Now

HTB Season ranking

We are almost at the end of the first Season, with 4 Machines left! While the HTB team is already working on Season II and the related improvements, we want to give a shoutout to the hackers that are rocking it so far!

At the top of the leaderboard, we find three pillars of the HTB community! Only by seeing these names, everyone that is part of our Discord server will know who we are speaking about. 

🥇szymex73

🥈snowscan

🥉Sm1l3z

In HTB Seasons, all users have the chance to own flags and reach the top in different Tiers. The overall leaderboard can be a hard mission for a beginner, but with just a couple of flags, all players can unlock rewards and gradually climb Tiers (from Bronze to Holo).

• Ruby top 3
  
  

• Silver top 3
  
  
  

• Bronze top 3
  
  
  

Well done, hackers! Keep pushing, and I am sure the next Season will start with a bang for you. 

HTB Stories: Episode #13

Our series of live streams is back with a fantastic guest: Rob Fuller, aka mubix, Director of Red Team & CTI at United Airlines. HTB Stories aim to further cover general security topics for the entire community, from cybersecurity professionals to students.

All talks are uploaded on our official YouTube channel right away, and you can enjoy them whenever you like, even if you miss the live-streaming session. Although, we recommend taking part in the live even because in every episode, we draw lucky winners that are awarded with VIP and VIP+ subscriptions! Follow this link for the complete list of episodes.

During our latest episode with mubix, we have discussed urban cybersecurity legends, myths, and part of his story while getting into the industry. A must-listen for everyone looking for tips to land a first job, or just to get curious stories about exploits.

Watch Now

HTB Meetups

Ready to get involved with your local community? The best, and easiest, way to do so is to join an official Hack The Box meetup around your area (online or on-site). There are now more than HTB Meetup members worldwide across 39 different countries. Here is the schedule for the upcoming period:

• Milwaukee, WI - 10 May

• Vancouver, WA - 13 May

• Guatemala - 14 May

• UK - 15 May

• Lisboa, Portugal - 17 May

• Netherlands - 18 May

• Baltimore, MD - 20 May

• Guatemala - 21 May

• UK - 22 May

• Guatemala - 28 May

• Guatemala - 4 June

• UK - 5 June

• Milwaukee, WI - 7 June

Looking for more? Always keep an eye on this page not to miss any meetups happening around the world. Trust us, it’s a lot of fun!

If there is no meetup in your area, you can become a host! Meetup organizers can unlock exclusive benefits and rewards such as swag, access to premium HTB training services, and more.

Become a Host

Upcoming events

The HTB team will travel the world over the next months. We are planning to our trips as we speak, and you better do the same if you want free swag and hear our amazing news before anyone else. Here is where to find us:

• InfoSecurity London (20 - 22 June)

• LeHack (30 June - 1 July)

We're also planning our presence at DEF CON 31, but… no spoilers! Make sure to stay tuned for the next community update where we will spill the tea on what we've got planned.

Cyber Apocalypse: The Track

25 of our Cyber Apocalypse 2023 challenges are now available on HTB Labs. This new Track is the perfect practice ground for any beginner who is looking for exciting hacking challenges to take on. 

If you missed Cyber Apocalypse, you can always catch up about it in this blog post and re-live the journey through the Cursed Mission with these exclusive challenges.

Start Now

Join the HTB team

Our community is growing, and so is our team! There are several open positions to join the Hack The Box staff, and we always welcome passionate community members to take part in our mission. 

• Senior Content Engineer

• Technical Customer Support

Check out this space for more job opportunities in all departments!

Other improvements

Some cool updates on Discord: We've now open-sourced our Discord Bot! 

Do you want to use a verification system with an HTB account on your own server? Or, perhaps, have some ideas you want to see in it? Try Hackster and enhance your experience.

That’s all for this Community Update! We wish you a lot of happy hacking ahead and will be back soon with more news and initiatives to get you involved. There’s more cool stuff coming your way soon, so keep an eye on our social media channels and, of course, join the official Discord server… the 💚 of our community.