Cybercrime 2019. A hacking success.

Throughout the past year, Students from Universities all over the country have been competing in hacking competitions to be able to win the Cybercrime Cup. On the 25th November 2019 at the Etihad Stadiun, the final 10 Universities were in an all morning hackathon. Locked away in their boxes, they were there hacking away to get enough points to reach the final.

During the Students hacking in the morning, there were exhibitors talking about their products, as well as speakers from numerous different cyber backgrounds and how you can combat the security issues with certain technology. For example; a phone on a subscription basis which all apps are locked down and will only allow you to download applications which have been approved by the company, As well as a five-factor-authentication rather than simple two. These two products stood out massively for me as they just show how clever these hackers can be, and how your security does need to be at the top of it's game.

After spending hours of hacking away and collecting as much money from the bank as possible, the final was upon us. A live e-sport hackathon with commentary so everyone in the audience was able to fully understand what the students were up to.

The two sets of universities were set up, with chat boxes on their laptops as they weren't allowed to talk openly, headphones on so they couldn't hear the commentary and two referees set up to ensure rules were followed. The task of this hack, hack the bank through creating an account and sending funds from other individuals into their own. They only had 30 minutes to do this, and it was the first to reach the fund of infinity or to have the most in the time given. Within the time, it was intriguing to see how these students were able to operate around the website, change code, and be able to falsify records to be able to gain access to customers accounts. The time has passed, and it was decided Royal Holloway were the winners where they were able to hack an amount of ￡27,000 in 30 minutes. Incredible.

Following the live e-sport, talks continued from the likes of BT, IBM and the Police. Tristan, Head of Security at BT was the talk that hit home. 1.4 million jobs have not been filled, and this is only going to grow with the advancement of technology, especially in Cyber. Having this many jobs free, and not having the pipeline to support this growth, the likes of E-Sport could be the future of getting the pipeline to continue.

Overall, the CyberCrime Cup 2019 was well worth the wait, it was enjoyable and the talks were thought provoking. Congratulations to Royal Holloway on winning the 2019 cup, and I look forward to see new faces next year.

#BCS #Cybercrime2019