Congratulations to the Earl Haig Secondary School Cyber-Challenge students who became national champions at the Cyber Titan 2018 Competition and Youth Summit, held in Fredericton, New Brunswick last month. The team, known as 6ixside consists of Andre Cao, Michael Cheung, Rishabh Jain, Shayan Khalili, James Kosic and Aranya Nagar were coached by their teacher Dr. Sacha Noukhovitch.
6ixside’s conquest, placing first in Vulnerability Management, out of the best ten teams Canada has to offer, is a massive accomplishment. Of course, finishing first, second or third in the DFIR or Vulnerability Management aspects of the competition is a great reflection of each student’s dedication and accomplishment. The competition was an opportunity to engage students in critical thinking and problem solving opportunities and create a community of technology learners working toward a vision of success while representing their school, province and country in cyber security defence competitions.
CyberTitan – Canada’s Cyber Security Education Initiative – is offered by the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) of Canada in affiliation with the (US) Air Force Association’s CyberPatriot Program which is presented by the Northrop Grumman Foundation. This collaboration of National Youth Cyber Education Programs seeks to promote education and awareness in technology education and foster excellence in students pursuing careers in cyber security or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) areas.
CyberTitan is focused on preparing middle and secondary school students with necessary skills for the digital economy by creating learning opportunities for students to engage in hands-on simulated environments. ICTC recognizing the importance of Cyber Security through their Focus on IT (FIT) program, introduce CyberTitan, Canada’s Cyber Security Education Initiative, a partnership initiative with industry, government and schools across Canada to develop relevant digital skills that are essential to their seamless transition into post-secondary ICT education pathways.
According to ICTC, students had to improvise and adapt to overcome the challenges and difficulties posed by the cyber-criminal gang responsible for the attack over social media. Critical to student success was documenting evidence of criminality via a ticketing system that added a real dimension of documenting the full spectrum of activities the students were undertaking .VIP guests from the RCMP and industry were thoroughly impressed.
Following the trail of breadcrumbs of post exploitation of a small business, teams had to employ investigative techniques and approaches to solve critical issues on various Operating Systems. The students did not have physical access to the machines; the entire security remediation and evidence gathering work was conducted remotely over command line, Remote Desktop or VNC on the images. Students were steadfast in their resolve to bring the business back online, and they succeeded.
Cyber security is headline news. Privacy breaches, compromised data systems, and unauthorized access to corporate secrets are playing out in real life every day in Canada and globally. School boards play a key role in preparing the next generation of students with skills necessary to protect governments, industries, and individuals from this global threat while also providing pathways to promising careers in ICT. Earl Haig Secondary School is committed to promoting digital literacy for all students.
Compiled with information form Cyber Titan’s website and the competition’s lead architect summary.
http://www.cybertitan.ca/index.php/teaminformation/