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SANReN Cyber Security Challenge 2020: Winners

2020-12-03 by in CSIRTEventsNews

SANReN hosted its fourth Cyber Security Challenge as part of the annual CHPC National Meeting 2020. This year due the COVID-19 pandemic the challenge was hosted virtually over the weekend of the 28-29 November 2020. The event started with an induction for the students at 18h00 on Friday evening, 27 November 2020.

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 COVID-19 and the lockdown imposed in South Africa, the competition was split into several rounds to provide opportunity for students to participate:

  • Qualification rounds: There were 417 students, comprising 117 teams that competed for a place in the final round. A team typically consists of three or four members. 
  • Final round: There were eight teams that were placed in the final round. The eight teams comprising 27 students competed in three challenges over the course of the two day event.

The following teams qualified to participate in the final round:

  • Techtonic – University of Pretoria (UP), Computer Science
  • Devs with Benefits – University of Pretoria (UP), Computer Science
  • WeRf<ckd – University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)., Computer Science
  • The Order of the Bit – mixed team: University of Stellenbosch (SUN) and University of Cape Town (UCT)
  • UPG8 – University of Pretoria (UP), Computer Engineering
  • Verdigris – University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Computer Science
  • SendNodes – University of the Western Cape (UCT)
  • CAPTCHA the Flag – Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) 

The final Scoreboard at the end of the 2020 competition is:

CSC 2020 CTF Ranking results

The various challenge winners are:

Capture The Flag (CTF) Challenge:

  • First place: The Order of the Bit – mixed team: University of Stellenbosch (SUN) and University of Cape Town (UCT)
  • Second place: Techtonic – University of Pretoria (UP), Computer Science
  • Third place: UPG8 – University of Pretoria (UP), Computer Engineering

Specific Challenges:

Social Engineering Challenge:

  • André van der Walt, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and 
  • Wilhelm Wiid, University of Pretoria (UP)

 F-Secure Attack/Defend Challenge: 

  • The Order of the Bit – mixed team: University of Stellenbosch (SUN) and University of Cape Town (UCT)

Much appreciation goes to our Cyber Security Challenge 2020 sponsor/partner

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