Hackers have taken over the portal of a local editorial office and paralyzed its operations. The only ones who can save the situation are young IT specialists from Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. This is the scenario of the „Cybertron" game jointly organized by the Wrocław University of Science and Technology and the Marshal's Office of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship.

„CyberTron" is a competition for high school students from Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, consisting of a field game and an IT-related part focused on cybersecurity. The aim of the competition is to raise awareness of the threats that can lurk on the internet, teach how to deal with them, and potentially eliminate them without harm to the user.

The eliminations for this year's edition of the competition were held before the holidays, and in the end, 24 participants made it to the finals (ten from Poland, ten from the Czech Republic, and four from Slovakia).

Journalists are invited to the official opening of the competition on Tuesday, September 26th. It will commence at 9:30 AM at the Student Culture Zone (Hoene-Wrońskiego 10).

During the meeting, details of the event will be discussed by prof. Kamil Staniec, Vice-Rector for Education at Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Marcin Krzyżanowski, Deputy Marshal of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, prof. Andrzej Kucharski, Dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology at Wrocław University of Science and Technology, and dr. eng. Mateusz Tykierko from the Wrocław Center for Networking and Supercomputing (WCSS).

– Cybersecurity has been one of the most popular fields of study at our university for many years. I am delighted that we will once again host enthusiasts who may become our future students – said prof. Andrzej Kucharski.

The game's plot involves hackers blocking the website of one of the local editorial offices. This attack prevents the publication of new news, and the editorial staff's accounts are locked. Therefore, the journalists must reach the portal's readers through traditional means, namely by producing a printed newspaper. The journalists need to write the information, assemble and print the newspaper, and then distribute it 'by hand' to the city's residents.

Participants will have to, among other things, find the vulnerability that allowed the hackers to breach the editorial system and attempt to deal with encrypted disks – explains dr. eng. Mateusz Tykierko. „CyberTron" is a unique competition designed to encourage young people to delve deeper into topics related to cybersecurity and is an excellent opportunity to learn how to work in an international team – he adds.

In the creation of the game and its tasks, scientists from the WUST Faculty of Information and Communication Technology, the White Hats Scientific Circle, WCSS employees, as well as 16 Polish mentors, who are players from previous editions, were involved.

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