In Hanoi, on November 5, the DTU ISITDTU1 team was one of five from south Vietnam to compete in the finals of the 2022 ASEAN Student Information Security contest, together with teams from other local countries. Once again, the DTU team confirmed their talents in international competitions by coming in second. The host team from the Academy of Cryptography Techniques won a joint second prize, and the University of Information Technology of the Vietnam National University (VNU) in HCMC came first. Certificates of Merit were awarded by the Minister of Education & Training at the 2022 Vietnam Information Security Day, on November 24 in Hanoi.
The DTU ISITDTU1 team, in white shirts
The ASEAN Student Information Security contest is the only information security competition open to all universities in ASEAN and the rest of Asia, held annually by the Vietnam Information Security Association to:
- Develop Network Security professionals
- Promote the implementation of the National Digital Transformation Program and the National Cybersecurity Strategy
- Improve Vietnam’s reputation in Information Security and its International Telecommunication Union ranking
The finals included ten Vietnamese teams and ten from six ASEAN countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore and Thailand. The Vietnamese teams were mostly from the Academy of Cryptography Techniques in Hanoi. The ASEAN teams participated online and were supervised by the jury through video conferencing.
The teams competed on Information Security in two sections:
- Solving questions for points (Jeopardy)
- Attack/defense for 8 hours continuously with 96 bouts.
In the first two hours, DTU ISITDTU1 quickly topped the rankings, thanks to the Red team, which was strong in attack, but the Blue team, initially on the defensive, was quickly overwhelmed, at one point dropping out of the top ten. However, with their teamwork, strategy and bold contest techniques, ISITDTU1 made a gradual comeback and, during the last three hours of the competition, found ways of attacking the other teams’ services. They reached second position and fought the remaining bouts with the UIT.pawf3ct team from the University of Information Technology at VNU in HCMC.
After 8 hours of intense and thrilling competition:
- First prize went to the UIT.pawf3ct team from the University of Information Technology at VNU in HCMC, with 11,629 points
- Second prizes to the DTU ISITDTU1 team 11,088 points, only 541 points behind the winners, and the KMA.L3N0V0 host team from the Academy of Cryptography Techniques, with 10,070 points
- Third prizes to the SECGANG team from the Hanoi University of Science & Technology, with 9,174 points and the PH4NTOM_TROUP3 team from the University of Engineering & Technology at VNU in Hanoi, with 8,692 points, and the MSEC¬_ADC team from the Military Technical Academy, with 6,742 points
- Five Consolation prizes for universities in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore.
The final results of the contest
“This year's Student Information Security contest was special because it was held on the 15th anniversary of the Information Security Association,” explained Director of Information Security at the DTU School of Computer Science, Nguyen Kim Tuan. “A video clip featuring teams with outstanding achievements was shown, including our second prize at the Arab Security Cyber Wargames in Egypt in September 2022.
“Over the past 15 years, the difficulty of the contest questions has significantly increased. This requires students to master details they learned in the classroom, merged with practical information acquired during individual research activities. Teams also need to refine their competitive skills and strategies and DTU has invested in building state-of-the-art practice rooms. The Information Security curriculum is regularly updated to meet real-world practical requirements and provide the latest information.”
(Media Center)