Students from South East Technological University’s (SETU) Department of Computing in Carlow recently participated in the world’s largest, one-day Capture the Flag (CTF) event with over 500 entries at Croke Park, Dublin. A CTF is a computer security competition in which participants compete in security-themed challenges to obtain the highest score. Competitors are expected to “capture flags” to increase their score.
Challenges vary across a range of cyber skills areas including cryptography, web application security, network security, digital forensics, reverse engineering, and mobile security but they also include non-technical puzzles, crosswords, and social challenges. The teams work together throughout the day to complete the challenges, gaining points as they are solved.
SETU’s Department of Computing in Carlow was represented by 25 students across five teams competing in this year’s competition. Students were from all years of SETU’s Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Cybercrime and IT Security course. All teams performed brilliantly; however, Team ‘Loki’ won both the Irish inter-varsity category and placed first among 92 teams in the open category, with a scoring of 11,930 points.
“Eurovision” of cybersecurity
This was a phenomenal achievement for team captain Andrew Currie, and his colleagues Daniel Vetrila, Peter Hyland, and Ivan Nikolskiy, in what was third year to participate in the competition. These students will now progress to consideration for Team Ireland in the European Cyber Security Challenge (ECSC) CTF. This is considered the “Eurovision” of cybersecurity and will be held in Turin, Italy in October 2024.
Michael Gleeson, lecturer in the Department of Computing at SETU in Carlow commented, “CTF competitions offer students a fun and enjoyable environment to pursue their individual interests and goals in computing. Additionally, employers regularly scout these events looking for talented graduates. We have an active student Cyber Society here at our Carlow campus that runs in-house CTFs, and I would encourage all students to consider participating in the future.”
For more information on SETU’s BSc. (Hons) in Cybercrime and IT Security, contact course director, Richard Butler on [email protected]. For further information on SETU’s Master of Science in Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Trust, contact course director, James Egan on [email protected]
For information on all computing courses at the University, visit setu.ie.
