{ Hackerman }

CYSCA 2018 – First Year Champions

I want to change things up this week and reflect on my first competitive university challenge, as opposed to just reflecting on what I have learnt from EPP in week 2.

At the start of semester 2 (July 2018), I took it upon myself to push further and embrace a new skill set that I could apply to my career. Cybersecurity was the answer! I have always been interested in cybersecurity and the fundamentals behind digitally breaking down and manipulating products. UTS has a cybersecurity organisation run by students for students.

After successfully signing up, it was apparent how much enjoyment and knowledge I was retaining from the weekly Thursday meet-up classes. It was enough to push me to enrol for a chance to represent UTS in the annual CYSCA 2018 cyber security competition. I was fortunate to have been 1/2 first-year teams. My team consisted of 4 members:

• Andrew – Our team captain – He took charge of exploit/reverse engineering
• Andy – Tactician – He was a generalist that knew a bit of everything and assisted the entire team
• Brendan – Web specialist – He focused on web/application security
• Nick (Me) – Digital Forensics/Network – My role was to focus on intercepting data packets that contained vital information.

After months of training and preparation, our team was ready for the next 24 hours of “ethical hacking”. As the clocked struck 12 pm, everyone went silent, and the competition had begun. At 12:01 pm, I had already hit a brick wall as I was the only team member that could not access the files I needed to begin my tasks for the digital forensics section. This was the start of many issues to come.

Despite the frustration which occurred now and then, we resolved our minor conflicts/frustrated moments, by working on a challenge together as opposed to having one member tackle one challenge. This was not our only process to resolve these incidents. We took breaks to relax our minds, played some games, and got some fresh air. By doing this, we were able to boost our team chemistry and walk away from the challenge as the highest ranking first-year team/8 first-year teams in Australia for the competition.

In conclusion, our team were faced with many incidents. Although we did not formally address these incidents, we were aware that they existed but proceeded to resolve the issue in various ways. Looking back at the competition, I can recognise:

• Patience is crucial
• If you are panicking, then take a deep breath
• Communication is key  

Using these key points, I already feel much more confident in minimising potential incidents in my next team-based competition. When a conflict arises, I will be more prepared in how I can approach the situation.

“We’re all working together; that’s the secret.”

Sam Walton