Ignite launches third edition of its Digital Pakistan Cybersecurity Hackathon 2023 in Karachi

The inaugural event of the third edition of Digital Pakistan Cybersecurity Hackathon 2023, organized by Ignite, took place in Karachi. The event was attended by CEO Ignite, Asim Shahryar Husain, along with board members of Ignite — Engr. Prof. Dr. Bilal Ahmed Alvi, Vice Chancellor Nazeer Hussain University Karachi and Prof. Dr. Rabia Enam, Director ORIC SSUET Karachi along with cybersecurity professionals and guests from industry and academia.

In his message, Dr. Umar Saif Federal Minister for IT & Telecom emphasized the paramount importance of safeguarding the cyber boundaries of the country. He highlighted the ongoing efforts within his ministry to identify and nurture talent capable of thwarting malicious cyber attempts. Furthermore, he conveyed the progress in establishing the operational readiness of Pakistan’s National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) and the forthcoming institutionalization of a Cyber Security Authority.

In his welcome address, Asim Shahryar Husain, CEO Ignite, informed that this year, Ignite had organized a series of five-day hands-on training workshops in ten cities of Pakistan to build the capacity of cybersecurity students and professionals before conducting the hackathons. He said that originally designed for approximately 100 participants at each location, these workshops accommodated an impressive 1576 trainees which was 57% more than the planned trainees. The comprehensive trainings covered various topics of cybersecurity including Security fundamentals, Penetration testing methodologies, Web application security, Network security, Social engineering, Wireless network security, Cloud Security, Mobile device security, and Incident response.

He also informed the audience that three teams from Ignite’s cybersecurity hackathons over the past two years —Griffyns, Sudoers, and Airoverflow—had competed in “Black Hat MEA” in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 14^th to 16^th November. The three teams, sponsored by Ignite, were ranked in the top 35 teams out of 250 global teams with Airoverflow, Sudoers, and Griffyns being ranked 27^th, 32^nd, and 33^rd in Blackhat MEA’s competition respectively. Team Airoverflow achieved a remarkable feat by cracking a Linux Docker in just 4 minutes and 50 seconds during a challenge presented by the Academy of Learning. This was the first time that six Pakistani teams had participated in Blackhat and goal will be to improve rankings in next year’s competition through training and practice.

This was followed by talks on different topics related to cybersecurity by Khurram Javed , Director NCERT, Fahad Azam, CISO Meezan Bank, GM K-Electric, and Salman Mufti, Head of Enterprise Security & Compliance, HBL. In his closing remarks, Engr. Prof. Dr. Bilal Alvi commended the efforts of Ignite for transforming the Digital Pakistan Cyber Security Hackathon into a national brand. He described it as a singular platform fostering an environment for identifying and addressing security vulnerabilities, promoting secure coding practices, and generating innovative solutions to combat emerging cyber threats faced by Pakistan.

The morning session involved a very interesting quiz competition which included live questions and answers using Menti’s platform. Teams from ten universities competed and the top 3 teams were from FAST and NUST universities. The hackathon started with 4 hours of blue teaming followed by 6 hours of capture the flag style competition. After 10 hours of hackathon, the top 3 teams were Revolt, M4Lware, and Sigma4.

The inaugural event in Karachi will be followed by regional rounds in Lahore, Multan, Peshawar, Quetta, and Islamabad, culminating in a final competition to be held in Islamabad by end of December. Cash awards of Rs. 3 million will be given to the top 3 teams after the final competition.

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