Impressions Pizza Hacking Night - Spring 2026 Edition

Last Friday, the ZHAW cybersecurity community gathered for the latest edition of Pizza Hacking Night. The event was a significant success, bringing together 40 participants for an evening of intensive technical challenges, professional networking, and knowledge sharing. It was inspiring to see such high levels of engagement as students and professionals collaborated to solve complex security puzzles.

The technical heart of the evening was a Capture The Flag (CTF) competition. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the Swiss Hacking Challenge, with special thanks to Carlo Field and Marc Bollhalder, for their expertise in organizing the platform. They provided a series of high-quality, complex challenges that pushed our participants to think critically and apply their skills in a competitive yet supportive environment.

A major highlight of the event was a presentation by Fabrice Caralinda from Orange Cyberdefense. His talk, titled”It’s just a bug… Until it’s Domain Admin!”, provided a fascinating deep dive into his work as a Penetration Tester. By bridging the gap between theoretical vulnerabilities and real-world system compromises, Fabrice offered our participants invaluable professional context that complemented the evening’s practical exercises.

An event of this scale is only possible through the generous support of our partners. We are deeply grateful to Orange Cyberdefense and the ZHAW Institute of Computer Science (InIT) for their sponsorship. Their commitment to fostering technical talent and supporting educational initiatives within the security sector is vital to the continued growth of this community.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making this edition a success. The energy and technical curiosity on display remind us why these gatherings are so important for the local security landscape. We look forward to seeing the community grow even further at our next event in November.

We would like to extend a special congratulations to the user jukien99, who demonstrated exceptional technical proficiency by solving the highest number of challenges during the evening. Navigating such a sophisticated set of tasks requires both deep expertise and a sharp analytical mindset, and their performance was truly impressive to witness. Achieving the top spot in this edition is a testament to their dedication to the craft of ethical hacking.