BLACK ALPS

The Black Alps Summer Event is a social event that aims to bring together the cybersecurity community (CEOs, CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, developers, and researchers) by creating highly valuable personal interactions, in an inspiring location and in a very casual way. It is a great opportunity to meet amazing people, expand your network, share breakthrough ideas and build trustful relationships. #BlackAlpsSE25. It was held Thursday, June 12th 2025 from 6:00pm at Restaurant La Sarcelle in Cheyres, a few minutes from Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland.

During this summer event, we had a narrow escape! While he welcomed the guests, our president, Sylvain Pasini, was suddenly interrupted and had to leave. He returned with unbelievable news: someone in the Black Alps community had been involved in an art theft.

This edition was organized in partnership with the OSINT Switzerland association and brought together over 80 cybersecurity and digital forensics experts. The experts were able to participate in an intriguing and entertaining investigation consisting of 10 challenges on their smartphones or involving interaction with the physical environment. Some of the challenges were technical, such as reverse image searches, code and metadata analysis, and web and on-device searches, while others were more logical.

Relive the CTF

It all began with a post on the Dark Web claiming responsibility for stealing a work of art.

But who could have planned to deactivate the security system at LA MAISON D'AILLEURS in order to finish his collection?

The collector must have used the computer skills of Sandy Wetzel. But is Sandy his accomplice or his victim? We had to find out for sure, so we gave a slightly awkward code to Sandy, who was present at this evening, to make sure he provided a clue hidden somewhere on www.seal-innovation.

A cryptolocked laptop and a criminal arranging to collect his ransom at the most emblematic square in the city of Yverdon, where a statue of an illustrious pedagogue stands.

Fortunately, the waiter who served the suspect a few days ago at a restaurant in this square is working tonight at La Sarcelle. Perhaps he can help us.

Using the decryption key, we retrieved all the data concerning the next Black Alps event on Sandy's laptop, which will take place on November 20 and 21, 2025.

An after a final search of leaked public data, we reached the conclusion of the investigation in this restaurant room. There, we learned that the sympathetic boss, Nicolas Schenk, was actually an art dealer.

pictures of the event

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