Capture The Flag commonly going by the initials CTF is a special kind of cybersecurity competition designed to challenge participants to solve computer security problems and/or capture and defend computer systems. This year, a team of three students from DeKUT were privileged to represent the University at the2021Intervarsity CTF Competition that was held at the AFRALTI Center, Nairobi. The competition brought together ten teams from different universities across the country who had earlier qualified at the semi-finals that were held on 12thand 13thFebruary, 2021.
The 2021 IntervarsityCTF Competition aimed at bringing together college and university students passionate about cyber security in Kenya. Members from each team had to combine their knowledge and skills to find flags then submit through the Cyberspace website profile to earn points. The challenges were designed from real-life systems and scenarios. By solving the challenges as a team, the participants gained much experience of what is expected of cyber-security experts. “The night was long with a lot of struggle and thinking trying to penetrate the virtual systems to find the flags designed for the competition, but at around midnight, we were able to find our first flag, which placed us at position 5 out of 10 on the leaderboard. The competition went on all night and ended in the morning” – expressed the participants.
The event ended with an awarding ceremony for the top 3 teams at the leaderboard and a closing speech by the guest speaker Madam Catherine Masinde from AFRALTI. She talked about the importance of practicing ethical cyber security activities at a professional level as well as taking certification courses in that field. She welcomed anyone who may be interested to book a chance at Cisco Kenya.
Although the night was long and cold, the experience gained was amazing as well as educational. Each member of the team had their most outstanding and memorable experience. The following quoted remarks were from each member of the DeKUT team.
“Having a chance to participate as an individual and as a team representing the University was a great honor for me. The most incredible moment was meeting young students from different universities. We shared the same ambitions and dream of becoming cyber-security experts and exercising it as a profession. The experience gained from solving the challenges was an enlightenment of what is expected of us in the industry. I also have to thank the University for the transport and accommodation expenses facilitation.”
~~JAMESGICHIRI, Team Captain.
“We had two weeks to go for the finals at AFRALTI and we all knew that we had to do our level best. It was all about practicing our skills online on various platforms on the web for the two weeks. We also occasionally met at the school and shared skills and ideas on resolving the security problems. The toughest challenge for me was in the reverse engineering category, namely: “magic”. Having no experience in reverse engineering, I had no clue how to go about it. This has given me the motivation to explore it, and I have currently started by writing .asm code focusing on 86_64bit assembly. I have also delved deeper into other areas. I would like to thank the University for facilitating us with the opportunity to attend the event.”
~~FESTUS GICHOHI, Team Member.
“For a first live Capture The Flag event, we did great. Since the event will now be held annually, we are aiming to improve next year. We learnt a lot of skills and techniques and new ways to approach various challenges. The event was more than what we expected as we were spoilt for choice with delicious meals and lots of coffee throughout the night. We would like to thank the University for thefinancial support.”
~~ ALLANNJUGUNA, Team Member.
The general feeling of the participants was that the experience was amazing. They reminisce the great feeling that came with sharingideas and training each other on various attacking vectors, exploiting handling and assessment techniques, and many more. Together with Mr. Njihia, the Innovations and Incubation Coordinator at the University’s Innovation and Incubation Hub (DeHUB), the team had a chance to have a chat with Ms. Catherine Masinde; the Cisco AcademySupport Administrator and Cisco Academy Instructor at African Advanced Level Telecommunications Institute (AFRALTI) who inspired them to continue working as a group and further form a cyber-security club at the University.
