Hackers took over the internet portal of the local newspaper newsroom and paralysed its work. Only young IT specialists from Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia can remediate the situation. This is the scenario of the „CyberTron" game organized jointly by Wrocław University of Science and Technology and the Marshal's Office of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship.

„CyberTron" is a competition for high school students and includes an outdoor game and an IT part related to cybersecurity. Its aim is to build awareness of the threats that may be lurking in the Internet, to learn how to deal with them and to possibly eliminate them without doing any harm to the user.

The first edition of the event was attended by twenty students from schools in Lower Silesia and Kralovohradec Krai, who qualified in the preliminaries. Students had to solve IT puzzles and tasks in order to find the culprits behind the hacker attack.

The qualifying rounds for this year's edition of the competition were held before the summer holidays, and the finals organized at Wrocław University of Science and Technology were ultimately attended by 24 people – ten from Poland, ten from the Czech Republic and, for the first time, four students from Slovakia.

“The aim of the competition is to increase the level of knowledge on topics related to cybersecurity, but also to establish a deeper cooperation between our partner regions. That's why I'm very glad that this year the competition format was expanded and included students from Slovakia. For young people, it is a great opportunity to meet their peers from other countries,” said Marcin Krzyżanowski, Vice-Marshal of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, during the opening ceremony.

Newsroom under hacker attack

This year's plot assumes that hackers have blocked the website of one of the local newspapers. The attack makes it impossible to publish new messages, and the accounts of the employees are blocked. It is therefore necessary to reach the readers of the portal in the traditional way, i.e. through a traditional newspaper. Journalists must write their news, typeset and publish the newspaper, and then distribute it "by hand" to people in the city.

The game – held in English – consisted of field tasks held around the WUST campus and of an IT part. During the field part, the competitors had to find messages, passwords, instructions and take photos that would be useful further in the gameplay.

The IT and programming part were held in the Student Culture Zone (SKS) and consisted of several CTF (capture the flag) tasks. The competitors were divided into international teams of 4-5 people and were provided with computers which they used to overcome obstacles and capture „flags."

„The plot and the game system are a great combination for training both the mind and the body. As participants, you have to solve math and IT problems, but there is also some running and searching for clues. I wouldn't be myself if I didn't refer to the ancient Greeks, who supposedly claimed that there are only two things worth learning – mathematics and physical education. I think that the formula of the CybertTon game combines these two things almost perfectly" – added Prof. Kamil Staniec, vice-rector for education at Wrocław University of Science and Technology.

The tasks in the game are prepared by computer scientists from the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology, students from the White Hats Student Research Club and the WCSS (Centre for Networking and Supercomputing) employees, as well as 16 Polish mentors, i.e. players from the previous editions. The winners of the competition were announced on September 27.

„I encourage all participants to come to study with us. Cybersecurity is one of our most popular fields of study and although the competition is fierce, I assume that as participants of this competition you will have no problems to keep up – our door will remain open for you, if you only want to” – said Prof. Andrzej Kucharski, dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology.

The competition is organized by Wrocław University of Science and Technology, the Marshal's Office of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, the WUST Faculty of Information and Communication Technology and the Wrocław Centre for Networking and Supercomputing.