Higher Education Cyber Challenge
Back in March over 100 students organised in 26 teams from the top cyber universities in the country, descended to B16 on the Highfield Campus to take part in ‘HECC 2019’, the Higher Education Cyber Challenge.
The event was a resounding success with both participants and media. Here is a write up by Charles Elder, Head of the University of Southampton’s media relations department.
Southampton set to host the one of country’s largest inter-university cyber security challenge
The University of Southampton is set to host one of the UK’s largest inter-university cyber security competition exclusive to students.
Over 100 students will descend on Southampton’s Highfield Campus on Saturday, 9th March, to compete in the 2019 Higher Education Cyber Challenge.
During the intense one-day competition, the students from 14 ACE (Academic Centre of Excellence for Cyber Security Research) universities, including eight participants from Southampton, will face a range of challenges created by experts from a team of international experts, including industry sponsors as well as current Southampton PhD researchers, Josh Curry and Laurie Kirkcaldy, and graduate Jamie Scott.
Both Josh and Laurie themselves were part of the Southampton team to place second in last year’s Inter-ACE Challenge hosted by Cambridge University.
Inter-ACE was established to help resolve the vast and growing cyber security skills gap, with an estimated shortfall of 1.8M workers worldwide by 2022. The competition aimed to inspire young tech enthusiasts into the cyber security sector, while also honing the skills of those who already have a strong aptitude for ethical hacking and helping them meet like-minded individuals and potential employers.
“Southampton have really enjoyed attending the Inter-ACE cyber challenge over the last few years,” said Josh Curry. “With that competition not running in 2019, we wanted to continue the tradition of bringing together students in cyber security and so created HECC, the Higher Education Cyber Challenge.We hope that everyone enjoys the challenges we have put together, and are happy to once again provide an opportunity for students to meet and network with their peers from across the UK.”
This year’s competitors will face 50 challenges in total, involving everything from hacking websites to reverse engineering. Working in teams of three or four, the students will be looking to find ‘flags’, worth a varying amount of points, during each activity to determine the winners.
Professor Vladimiro Sassone, Director of the Southampton’s Cyber Security Academy, said: “We’re very pleased to bring the Higher Education Cybersecurity Challenge to Southampton for the first time. The Challenge provides an excellent platform for students to perform as teams, under pressure, and is proving to be an important training ground as the future of the world’s cyber security capabilities rests on the shoulders of these students.”
Southampton is well-placed to host the HECC Challenge as the University plays a leading role in cyber security research and education through its Cyber Security Research Group where expertise and excellence in these fields are brought together.
The Group undertakes basic and applied cyber security research, providing core capabilities and leadership in support of the University’s broader security activities. The Group constitutes the core of the Academic Centre of Excellence for Cyber Security Research (recognised by National Cyber Security Centre and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) as well as the Cyber Security Academy, a partnership between University, Industry and Government, whose objectives span from research and consultancy to outreach, training and knowledge transfer.
It was an outstanding success with 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes going to Cardiff, Cambridge and Imperial. There was even coverage on BBC South Today and BBC Radio Solent. It was great the University supported this event.
