Cybersecurity Challenges in Hong Kong
Cybersecurity is gaining more and more importance with each passing day. As digitalization keeps growing manifold at an unbeatable pace, the threats to our data keep growing too. And this is high time that we generate new cyber experts that can combat the malware, hackers, phishing, and ransomware.
One such attempt to foster cybersecurity enthusiasts is the cybersecurity competitions and challenges that are hosted worldwide. These challenges are a great opportunity to test your skills against other cyber enthusiasts. They are usually focused on forensics, coding, web exploitation, and more such topics. Some events are individual. Other events like CTF challenges are team events.
What are the Prizes?
For the 2020 contest, the prizes were different for both categories. Additionally, the school that sends most teams was awarded the 'Most Supportive School Award’.
1. For Secondary School (students)
The team that bagged the Gold medal was given DJI Osmo Pocket and Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. And for the teams that got Silver and Bronze, Apple Airpods Pro and Fitbit Charge 4 Advanced Fitness Tracker were awarded. Along with this, they gave each winning school a trophy.
2. For Tertiary Institutions
The Gold-winning team was awarded Samsung Tab S6 Lite 4+128GB 10.4" LTE and Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. The silver runner-up team bagged a DJI Osmo Action Action Camcorder, and the Bronze one got a Sony SRS-XB33 Portable Bluetooth Speaker.
All the winners were given an electronic award certificate and a chance to participate in the cybersecurity training program by HKPC. They awarded all the participants an electronic participation certification.
The CTF Challenge in Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre (HKCERT) teamed up with Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) to organize "Hong Kong Cyber Security New Generation Capture the Flag (CTF) Challenge 2020" for the first time. This CTF challenge's main goal was to make the masses aware of cybersecurity, build team spirit, boost creativity, and present an opportunity to the students to display their cyber skills.
Before the Capture The Flag challenge, students get a warm-up session and a workshop with cybersecurity experts.
More About the Contest
The Capture The Flag Challenge takes place online in the Jeopardy Style. After each round, the contestants will be given their scores.
The rounds will be focused on cryptography, reverse engineering, forensics, binary exploitation, web exploitation, and other puzzles.
Coming to the eligibility, the event has two categories – Secondary School and Tertiary Institution (full-time Diploma, Higher Diploma, Associate or Bachelor Degree students). To take part, you need a team of two to four people. For secondary schools, all the team members must belong to the same school. Each team can participate only in one category. There are no restrictions on the number of teams that each school can send.