CySCA 2018
Hello there! As this is my first journal entry i would like to share something special, and has made a profound impact towards my perspective upon Cyber Security.
The society is called UTS CyberSec, the one and only Cyber Security society in this University. The club was founded around a two years ago (2017) with its core members coming mostly from IT backgrounds. After some policy changes here and there, the club began to focus mainly on preparing students for the emerging Cybersec field in Australia. Every Thursday there was club training from 4 to 6:30 pm, experts from the club's sponsors came in often to do workshops and activities to educate us upon the most current tools of the trade... Hell even the members were some of the most opportunist and eccentric i have ever met. There's Larry the Dad of the society, a humorous Russian bad ass who also works as a tutor for the Uni, TwoKeebs (not his real name) who got his name from brute- forcing an access point using two keyboards, Luke the amazing head educator that was teaching us younguns despite him being only a few years older. Darsh, one of the senior member of the society was always there if you are in a pickle. Just to name a few.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"24 hours?" was my first words after the competition briefing, "Where do we even sleep?" came after.
It was the middle of my first year at University of Technology Sydney, and all of the training just flew over my head when i first delved into the details of this competition.
"CySCA is Australia’s only national cyber security competition. It runs over 24-hours and will test both your technical skills and communication know-how. It’s not easy, but it’s heaps of fun, and the opportunities you get from participating are fantastic." - competition website
5 teams of 4 will represent each University for this competition, and the format is simple. Earn as much points from flags within the 24 hour limit, you may only work with the other 3 members.
Team name: 3% paradigm
- Red Wheelbarrow(not his real name) was our team captain and dealt with exploit/reverse engineering.
-My primary role specifically was the team tactician, focusing on analyzing the strength and weakness of my team and learning the blind spots so that I can assist during the competition.
- Brandon was in charge of external/web application security.
-Nick is the Internally/ network security guy.
The society is called UTS CyberSec, the one and only Cyber Security society in this University. The club was founded around a two years ago (2017) with its core members coming mostly from IT backgrounds. After some policy changes here and there, the club began to focus mainly on preparing students for the emerging Cybersec field in Australia. Every Thursday there was club training from 4 to 6:30 pm, experts from the club's sponsors came in often to do workshops and activities to educate us upon the most current tools of the trade... Hell even the members were some of the most opportunist and eccentric i have ever met. There's Larry the Dad of the society, a humorous Russian bad ass who also works as a tutor for the Uni, TwoKeebs (not his real name) who got his name from brute- forcing an access point using two keyboards, Luke the amazing head educator that was teaching us younguns despite him being only a few years older. Darsh, one of the senior member of the society was always there if you are in a pickle. Just to name a few.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"24 hours?" was my first words after the competition briefing, "Where do we even sleep?" came after.
It was the middle of my first year at University of Technology Sydney, and all of the training just flew over my head when i first delved into the details of this competition.
"CySCA is Australia’s only national cyber security competition. It runs over 24-hours and will test both your technical skills and communication know-how. It’s not easy, but it’s heaps of fun, and the opportunities you get from participating are fantastic." - competition website
5 teams of 4 will represent each University for this competition, and the format is simple. Earn as much points from flags within the 24 hour limit, you may only work with the other 3 members.
Team name: 3% paradigm
- Red Wheelbarrow(not his real name) was our team captain and dealt with exploit/reverse engineering.
-My primary role specifically was the team tactician, focusing on analyzing the strength and weakness of my team and learning the blind spots so that I can assist during the competition.
- Brandon was in charge of external/web application security.
-Nick is the Internally/ network security guy.
Sadly I am not allowed to disclose the content of the competition, but I would like to share my experience. To put it simply, it was and still is one of the single most memorable thing I have ever experienced in my life. The anxious urge to look up our team ranking on the projector above, the colorful RGB's responding to the marvelous symphonies of keyboard clicks. How can I ever forget the blissful silence when I finally caught some rest outside on the hallway sofa, brightly lit by the ceiling LED. There will be frustration of course but trust me, that euphoria at the end when the timer hits 0. It will make you feel invincible like conquering the Everest, but with a team that stood by your side until the very end. I am both lucky and privileged to be a part of the first year team that is ranked first in the first year division and 32nd in mixed.
Thank you for reading and lastly i would like to share my favorite quote: "Opportunity multiply when they are seized." - Sun Tzu
Good read, very inspiring.
ReplyDelete