SANReN hosted its fifth  Cyber Security Challenge as part of the annual CHPC National Meeting 2021. This year due the COVID-19 pandemic the challenge was hosted virtually over the weekend of the 27-29 November 2021. The event started with an induction for the students at 18h00 on Friday evening, 27 November 2020.

The purpose of the competition is to stimulate interest in Cyber Security in the field of network/information security within South African tertiary education institutions. Thus, the competition is aimed at university students who are interested in information security fields such as penetration testing, incident response, digital forensics and security training. During the competition students were exposed to simulated cyber related threats.

Due to the COVID-19 and the lockdown imposed in South Africa, the competition was split into several rounds to provide opportunity for students to participate:

• Qualification rounds: There were 229 students, comprising 65 teams that competed for a place in the final round. A team typically consists of three or four members. Teams from ten institutions competed.

Final round: There were eleven teams that were placed in the final round. The eleven teams comprising 40students competed in three challenges over the course of the two day event.

The following teams qualified to participate in the final round:

• CyberFury, University of Pretoria (CS)
• Cronus, Botho University
• UCSC, University of Eswatini
• GonePhishing, Rhodes University
• CommuniMaestros,    University of Botswana
• HappyTreeFriends,     University of the Western Cape
• Unid£ntified,  Tshwane University of Technology
• CyberGlory, University of Johannesburg
• ThePhishermen, University of Pretoria (CS)
• SavannaSolutionsSubset,  University of Pretoria (CS)
• Tsotsi, University of Cape Town

The various challenge winners are:

Capture The Flag (CTF) Challenge:

• First place: CyberFury, University of Pretoria
• Second place: SavannaSolutionsSubset, University of Pretoria (CS)
• Third place: HappyTreeFriends, University of the Western Cape

Specific Challenges:

Social Engineering Challenge:

• No Social Engineering price was awarded in 2021.

 Attack/Defend Challenge: 

• First place: CyberFury, University of Pretoria
• Second place: ThePhisermen, University of Pretoria
• Third place:  HappyTreeFriends, University of the Western Cape

Much appreciation goes to our Cyber Security Challenge 2021 sponsor/partner Bitm