On June 3, the first local cybersecurity tournament among BSUIR Cybersecurity Day students was held, organized by hoster.by and the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics. As part of the competition, 40 participants solved practical problems related to web vulnerabilities, attacks, cryptography, steganography and other aspects of information security.
Specialists from the hoster.by cybersecurity center built a cyber testing ground especially for students – a virtual site that imitates the real infrastructure of a modern company. Like the vast majority of real infrastructures, which include a website, mail servers, and web applications, it contained a number of vulnerabilities. The tournament was held in the Capture the Flag (CTF) format – a competition where players must find and capture a “flag” hidden in the system. Such tournaments help develop skills in finding vulnerabilities and eliminating them. Participants had to discover weak points and hack as many elements as possible. The speed of passage of the cyber range was also assessed.
“When you mention the word “hacker,” the image of a criminal immediately comes to mind. But it is important to understand that there are a huge number of “white” or “ethical” hackers, whose task and even profession is to search for vulnerabilities in order to eliminate them and increase the security of the system, says Sergei Povalishev, CEO of hoster.by. “The world's best digital fraudsters and defenders have very similar sets of knowledge and skills, but they work on opposite sides of the fence. It is important for us that as many young people as possible choose the right side and are inspired by interesting, prestigious and highly sought-after professions related to information security in the world.”
The tournament jury consisted of representatives of BSUIR and the cybersecurity center hoster.by. CTF competitions involve the participation of specialists of any level and specialization. Likewise, at BSUIR Cybersecurity Day, 1st-3rd year students from a variety of faculties fought equally. Third-year students Vladimir Velikovich, Alexander Efimchik and Andrey Zelkowski took the prize places.
The organizers plan to make BSUIR Cybersecurity Day an annual event. This is primarily due to the unprecedented demand for cybersecurity specialists.
“BSUIR is traditionally a place with the maximum concentration of talented students with excellent technical training,” says First Vice-Rector of BSUIR Maxim Davydov. “We are glad that, together with colleagues from hoster.by, we organized the first local cybersecurity tournament and are confident that this is the beginning of a great annual event and the start of a successful career for hundreds of graduates of our university.”
*hoster.by is the country's largest registrar of national domains .BY and .BEL, a provider of hosting, cloud solutions and information security services. The first certified commercial cybersecurity center in Belarus.
