{"id":264,"date":"2020-03-04T12:23:35","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T12:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csc.ac.za\/?page_id=264"},"modified":"2026-03-02T08:19:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T06:19:36","slug":"rules","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.csc.ac.za\/?page_id=264","title":{"rendered":"Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Individual Eligibility for Participation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A participant must be a <strong>registered student<\/strong> for tertiary studies in 2026 (full year) at an eligible tertiary educational institution.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Eligible educational institutions are public South African universities (including public universities from SADC) and South African institutions that have entered a REN service agreement, and form part of the SA NREN may participate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If a participant was part of a team that placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd during the 2025 Cyber Security Challenge final, that participant cannot participate as a team member in the 2026 Cyber Security Challenge.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If a participant from a previous CSC final round wants to participate in the 2026 Cyber Security Challenge, that participant must join a team comprising new members (who have not participated in a CSC final before).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A participant may not compete in more than two successive finals of the CSC competition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Team Eligibility<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Team members must be registered students for tertiary studies in 2026 (full year) at eligible tertiary educational institutions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Team members must all be from the same eligible tertiary educational institution.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Eligible educational institutions are public South African universities (including public universities from SADC) and South African institutions that have entered a REN service agreement, and form part of the SA NREN may participate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A team that participated previously in a CSC final is not allowed to participate&nbsp;again as a full team.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Team Size<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Teams are restricted to 3 members if all members are of the same gender, otherwise the teams can be up to 4 members.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The team leader is a member of the team that has been designated as the Point of Contact (PoC) for that team.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The organisers will interact with the team leader regarding all correspondence related to the competition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Teams must compete without any outside aid from non-team members.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Participation Rules for the Qualification Round<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Eligible teams interested in participating must register on the CSC website (please consider the above team size requirements when forming teams).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Registration must be completed before the closing of the qualification round.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The qualification dates will either be confirmed with the university mentor or communicated directly with the registered team.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The qualification round will be open for 10 days.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Registered teams to receive notification via email with credentials <strong><em>on the day the qualification round opens<\/em><\/strong> (as per agreed dates).\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The closing date and time for participating the qualification round will also be shared in the email.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Please note that challenges submitted after the communicated closing date and time will not be considered.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Each team is expected to participate in the qualification round remotely.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The qualification round with consist of a collection of Capture the Flag challenges.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hints are made available for certain challenges and used by teams at their own discretion. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The scoreboard will not be made public (this is because various universities will be participating at different times during the qualification round).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Used hints will not be reversed by the organisers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Organisers will respond to participant queries by the next business day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Team Selection for Finals<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The CSC organisers will invite the top 10 teams to attend the CSC finals at the CHPC National Conference.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>To be eligible to qualify for the final, teams must participate in the CSC qualification round.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Only the top team (1) per university department at an eligible institution can qualify for the CSC final (a team from both the Computer Science and Engineering departments can be considered).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Please note that the top team from a university department must still place in the top 10 overall (of all institutions participating) in order to qualify for the CSC final.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The score achieved by the team during the qualification round will be used as the main measure to determine selection for the CSC final.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Should 2 or more teams from the same university department end up with the same score, the CSC organisers will consider additional criteria to separate the teams.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The criteria to be applied will be decided by the CSC organisers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>For the 2026 Cyber Security Challenge, the CSC organisers will reserve a single place in the CSC final for an invitational team &#8211; to be selected by the CSC organisers&#8217; based on pre-established criteria.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The CSC organisers&#8217; decision is final, and no negotiations or correspondence with participants will be entered into<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Team Mentor for Finals<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Teams who have qualified for the CSC final must be accompanied by a team mentor.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The team mentor must be affiliated with the university the team will be representing at the finals.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Should the recognised team mentor (as per the mentors list on the CSC website) be unable to attend, that mentor must then nominate a suitable replacement (who must be affiliated with the university).\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A past CSC finalist can be considered by the recognised team mentor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A mentor can&#8217;t be nominated or recommended by the participating team.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All team mentors <strong>must<\/strong> abide by the Team Mentor Rules.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Team Mentor Rules for Finals<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Mentors are permitted to support and encourage their participating team \u2013 offer guidance when teams are struggling.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mentors are required to check in on the well-being of the team.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mentors must ensure the team is present at important events.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mentors are not allowed to assist with solving or providing solutions to the challenges.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mentors may not provide answers to the challenges.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mentors failing to adhere to the rules will lead to the disqualification of the team.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Participation Rules for the Final Round<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>All team members should be present at the event.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All team members will wear badges identifying team affiliation at all times during competition.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If the member of a team advancing to the final round of the competition is unable to attend, that team may substitute a person in their place, as long as that person qualifies under the eligibility rule.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Teams may not modify the hardware configurations of competition systems.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Teams must not open the case of any system such as, laptop, monitor, router, switch, firewall, or any other piece of equipment used during the competition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Teams may not remove their assigned laptops from the competition area unless specifically authorised to do so by organisations members.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All network activity that takes place on the competition network will be logged and subject to anonymised release.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Teams will be supplied with laptops for the competition.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This is to ensure a fair base for the games.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>These laptops are not allowed to be moved from the booths.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All team members are expected to attend morning briefings, plenary speakers sessions and the prize ceremony and dinner.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In addition to published rules, new policies and rules may apply throughout the games.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>These rules will be communicated to each team leader.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Social Engineering is allowed at the competition, but&nbsp;<strong>strictly<\/strong>&nbsp;limited to Cyber Security Challenge participants.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sabotage is not allowed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If unsure ask the organisers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Challenges for the Final Round<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Capture The Flag Challenge\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This challenge will consist of a collection of hacking puzzles (web security, reverse engineering, mobile security, digital forensics, etc.).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Attack and Defend Challenge\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The last day of the competition, teams will be required to defend a system, and attack the other teams&#8217; systems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sponsored Challenges\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Unique challenges that provides students with the opportunity to gain exposure to other forms of cyber security.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Individual Eligibility for Participation Team Eligibility Team Size Participation Rules for the Qualification Round Team Selection for Finals Team Mentor for Finals Team Mentor Rules for Finals Participation Rules for the Final Round Challenges for the Final Round<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-264","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csc.ac.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csc.ac.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csc.ac.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csc.ac.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csc.ac.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.csc.ac.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1256,"href":"https:\/\/www.csc.ac.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/264\/revisions\/1256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csc.ac.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}