Namibia competes in Collegiate Cyber Defence Invitational

STAFF REPORTER

This is a cyber-security competition, aimed at creating awareness for cyber security and at the same time teach and learn from each other. There were universities and colleges participating from the US, Namibia and Indonesia. Namibia was represented by Delta Secondary School (DSS) competing.

The object is to get computer-users to become aware of cyber-security, hacking and how to protect themselves against real and potential threats. Getting users to be conscious of online threats as early as possible, creates savvy online users that keep themselves, their data and the organisations they work for safe. The aim is to learn, teach, help and ultimately, create better computer administrators, with knowledge of cyber threats.

This year’s theme was all about teamwork, with a twist. Previously teams had not been allowed to assist each other in blocking the attacks coming from the RED team (hackers). Now teams could collaborate and Where this is exactly what happened. When the first attacks happened, teams started to collaborate and quickly find innovative ways to keep the RED team out. This year, the RED team had to ‘up their game’ and we spent long hours gathering information. This was truly a team effort from both sides of the game. Hackers working together (internationally with people from the USA) and the same for the defending teams.

The set-up is as follow; universities are in defending teams. They do basic sysadmin work in the competition. This means that they get random calls to do, and tasks to finish within a certain time frame, while trying to keep the hackers out.

The hackers are all industry experts, both private and public sector. They were tasked with gathering information and then carry out specific attacks. Hackers had to get into the system and copy certain files out of the system as evidence that they got into the system and retrieved data. In Windhoek we had participants from Delta Secondary School (DSS) as well, and DSS kept up with the best teams internationally.

Green Enterprise Solutions is a great fan of this initiative and this is the second time that it has been involved and now actually as a participant in the competition. Llewellyn le Hané , founder of Green Enterprise Solutions said; “ At Green we feel strongly about creating awareness and educating Namibia and Namibians about cyber threats and hacking. This is why Green supports this fantastic initiative. We assisted both on the hacking team and also had a well-trained judge on the judging panel.” He continued; “It especially fills us with pride to see a Namibian school, Delta Secondary School winning in the category Best Attackers Choice Team as well as getting an honourable mention for being one of the ‘Best collaborative teams’, it means that Namibia’s ICT-Security future is in safe hands.“

This October 2018, Namibia will have their annual National cyber security competition and Green will be strongly represented, feeling its part of its corporate social responsibility to assist Colleges and Universities right here in Namibia and create future ICT professionals.