NUST Wins National Cyber Security Competition 2018

NUST has once again won the annual Namibia National Cyber Security Competition (NNCSC). The competition, being held for the fourth time, is aimed at creating awareness for cyber security threats. The theme of the NNCSC was “Trust, But Verify,” which aimed at promoting responsible online behaviour within organisations.

The NUST Team 1 secured the overall championship title, whilst the NUST Team 2 came second. UNAM Team 1 secured the 3rd place. Additionally, there were category prizes, namely, Best Injects, which was won by Lingua Training College, and Best Uptime, as well as Attacker’s Award, that where both scooped by the NUST Team 1. On top of this, Best Collaboration, went to NUST Team 2.

Mercy Chitauro, Faculty of Computing and Informatics Lecturer, and Coach of 2018 NUST NNCSC Teams (front row, fourth from left), pictured with Attlee Gamundani, Faculty of Computing and Informatics Lecturer (front row, far right), as well as the NUST participants.The rules of the competition made provisions for institutions to enter more than one team. The awards were sponsored by Paratus Telecom, MTC, Green Enterprise Solutions, and the First National Bank, respectively. Furthermore, the achievements were crowned with individual trophies and medals, courtesy of CSS Tactical Security.

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The competition also provides a platform for industry to groom future Information Communication Technology (ICT) professionals with a specialisation in cyber security.

All in all, there were six teams from four institutions namely, Delta Secondary School, Lingua International College, the University of Namibia and NUST. Mercy Chitauro, a lecturer in the Faculty of Computing and Informatics (FCI) at NUST, and the coach of the NUST teams, noted that the competition is set to provide students with real-world challenges simulated in a theoretical environment that models a practical corporate network to curb these crimes.

She added that students are challenged to protect modelled corporate networks, while at the same time attending to normal day-to-day activities, such as setting up e-mails, attending to employee queries and serving clients under strict deadlines.

The competition was also made possible by other companies and institutions that included Business Connexion (BCX), Bank of Namibia, Namibian Police, Ministry of Defence, Office of the Prime Minister, Telecom Namibia and NamWater.

With the date for the next NNCSC event for next year already pegged for Saturday, 05 October 2019, FCI encourages industry to come on board and make a difference in the cyber security sector. More details can be found on the competition website: www.nncsc.com