Hackers took over the internet portal of the local newspaper newsroom and paralysed its work. The problem may be solved by an international team of young IT specialists. 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 team game for high-school students aimed at testing their IT skills and ability to creatively solve problems in the field of cybersecurity and critical infrastructure. 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.

– It is a unique competition that is intended to encourage young people to learn more about modern IT and cybersecurity issues. It is also a great opportunity to learn how to work in an international team,” emphasizes Prof. Arkadiusz Wójs, rector of Wrocław University of Science and Technology.

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.

– International cooperation is one of the most important elements of the entire competition. With the help of this event, we not only strengthen the ties between our regions, but also give young people the opportunity to meet peers from other countries,” says Marcin Krzyżanowski, Deputy Marshal of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. “We decided that the formula of the competition should be extended. Therefore, in the final of this edition we will also host students and teachers from Slovakia,” he added.

Newsroom 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 – will consist of both field tasks held around the WUST campus and of an IT part. The competitors will have to find messages, passwords, instructions and take photos that will be useful further in the gameplay.

The IT and programming part will consist of several CTF (capture the flag) tasks. Competitors will be divided into teams of 4-5 people and will be provided with computers which they will use to overcome obstacles and capture "flags."

“During the competition, the participants will have to, among others, find the vulnerability that allowed hackers to get into the editorial system and try to deal with encrypted drives. In turn, the outdoor adventure game will allow young people to get to know the campus of our university,” explains Mateusz Tykierko, Ph.D., deputy director of the Wrocław Centre for Networking and Supercomputing at WUST. “The tasks are prepared in cooperation with the finalists of previous competitions so as to build a whole community of people interested in cyber security,” he adds.

Registration is underway

The eliminations for the competition in the online formula are scheduled for 17-18 June and the final will take place on 26-28 September at WUST. Applications are accepted until 14 September at http://cybertron.edu.pl/.

The final will be held under the supervision of specialists from the Centre for Networking and Supercomputing and the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology, WUST.

“At our Faculty, we run a course in cybersecurity that is very popular among candidates and we are very interested in disseminating information in this field. We also want to use this opportunity to encourage young people to choose studies at Wrocław University of Science and Technology. Perhaps this applies less to young people from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but who knows – we also invite them to visit us,” said Prof. Andrzej Kucharski, Dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology.

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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.

The task is co-financed from the financial resources of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship Government