DTU is the only university from the Central region to contest in the finals of the 2014 Students with Information Security competition, which will take place in Hanoi on November 22.
The DTU Faculty of Information Technology offers three majors: Software Engineering, Network Engineering, and Information Systems. The major of Network Engineering has two sub-disciplines being Network Management and Network Security.
Selecting students for the teams to be sent to the 2014 Students with Information Security contest proceeded quite professionally. Students (usually third-year students) with high marks in subjects related to network security (Fundamentals of network security, Security engineering, Internet security, Exploitation of network vulnerabilities, Response to network attack, Security architecture, Information warfare, etc.) were chosen to take part in a 3-month training course on theoretical understanding of network security.
The Duy Tan ISIT1-DTU team at the competition
After the course, these teams competed against each other to select about twenty students, which were again teamed up to train their practical web security skills. At that point, the university invited specialists in the field of network security to train and support the selected teams in gaining hands-on experience.
The two selections of the university also regularly participated in online Capture the Flag (CTF) contests both at home and abroad to improve their skills and to learn about new vulnerabilities and methods of attack as well as about the tools and methods to detect and correct them.
The ISIT1-DTU team (red shirts) obtained a second prize, and the ISIT2-DTU (at the back) obtained a third prize in the preliminary round for the Southern region
The university also constructed a dedicated web security practice room for the students that are passionate about information security to have the possibility to practice their attacking and defending skills.
Despite the short term of the investment so far, DTU already got some notable early returns on it, as it came second of the Southern region the first year it participated in the Information Security contest (2012) and went on to the national finals round. Its performance in 2013 and 2014 has been similar. For the last three years, the DTU teams always excelled in theory, while the practical side has been improving from year to year.
In 2014, the Duy Tan ISIT1-DTU team remains the only one from the Central region to enter the national finals, and it is also the only team from a private university reaching the final round of the competition, not just once but thrice in a row.
(Media Center)