SANReN Cyber Security Challenge 2019: Winners

Much appreciation goes to our Cyber Security Challenge 2019 Sponsors

SANReN hosted its third Cyber Security Challenge during the CHPC National Meeting 2019 at the Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre in Kempton Park, from 01 to 04 December 2019.

The purpose of the competition is to stimulate interest in Cyber Security in the field of network/information security within South African tertiary education institutions. Thus, the competition is aimed at university students who are interested in information security fields such as penetration testing, incident response, digital forensics and security training. During the competition students were exposed to simulated cyber related threats.

Due to the high interest from students, the competition was split into two rounds:

• Qualification round: In the first, qualifying round, 416 students, comprising 125 teams, competed for a place in the final round. A team is normally comprised of four members. There are tweleve team places in the final round.
• Final round: During the final round, twelve teams comprising 44 students (some teams were only comprised of three members) competed in a number of challenges over the course of the event. This year a team from Mozambique qualified to participate in the competition.

The following teams qualified to participate in the final round:

(`_>’) – University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), Computer Science
GandCrab – Stellenbosch University (SUN)
IHateYou – North-West University (NWU)
Inf3ct – Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), Namibia
Short Circuits – University of KwaZulu-Natal(UKZN), Engineering
Team Golf – University of Pretoria (UP), Engineering
The IT Crowd – University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Computer Science
TheGeeks – Multiple universities, Mozambique
We Who Shall Not Be Named – University of the Western Cape (UWC)
WillHackForPizza – University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), Engineering
WireGhosts – University of Botswana, Botswana
Pigeon.exe – University of Pretoria (UP), Computer Science

The final Scoreboard at the end of the 2019 competition is:

The various challenge winners are:

Capture The Flag (CTF) Challenge:

• First Place: Pigeon.exe – University of Pretoria (UP), Computer Science
• Second place: We Who Shall Not Be Named – University of the Western Cape (UWC)
• Third Place: IHateYou – North-West University (NWU)

Specific Challenges:

• Social Engineering Challenge: The IT Crowd – University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Computer Science
• Hash Challenge: (`_>’) – University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), Computer Science
• F-Secure Attack/Defend Challenge: Team Golf – University of Pretoria (UP), Engineering

Bonus Challenge (individual): Hack the Shark

• Andrew Boyley – University of the Witwatersrand, Computer Science