Hail the hackers

Congratulations: (From second left) Team Kasturi’s Vincent Chin Wen Shen, Danisy Eisyraf Yusni Afindi and Koh Li Hom with Prof Vinesh (far right) and APU School of Technology senior head Assoc Prof Dr Thang Ka Fei (far left).

Team Oubaitori from the National Institute of Technology Malang, Indonesia, and Team Kasturi from Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU), Malaysia, were recently crowned Asean Battle of Hackers (ABOH) 2023 champions in the regional and local categories, respectively.In the Asean category, National University of Singapore’s Team iMonkee Pro Max Ultra came in second, with Team Bømbåstïç S¡dë £¥€ from Politeknik Mersing, Johor, taking the third spot.In the local category, Team Cincai from Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT) secured second place ahead of Team L0stPaR4d0x from APU.

Organised by APU’s Forensic and Cyber Security Research Centre – Student Section (FSeC-SS), ABOH 2023 celebrated resilience, innovation and collaboration within the regional cybersecurity community.

Spearheaded by FSeC-SS advisers and APU School of Technology lecturers Nor Azlina Abd Rahman and Noris Ismail, the cybersecurity challenge, held last month, attracted 409 participants and 141 teams from 29 universities, including those from Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei. The six-hour-long Jeopardy-style Capture the Flag (CTF) challenge was a comprehensive test of knowledge in areas like cryptography, forensics, web vulnerabilities and reverse engineering, with judging focused on cybersecurity skills and ethical conduct.

During the event on Dec 2, APU chief innovation and enterprise officer Prof Dr Vinesh Thiruchelvam launched “A Beginner’s Guide to CTF”, a guidebook written by Nor Azlina and APU FSeC-SS committee members Chen Lik Ken and Yeo Jia Qi.A hands-on workshop on real-world cybersecurity challenges was also held.