NUST Hosts 6th Namibia National Cybersecurity Competition virtually

The 6th Namibia National Cybersecurity Competition (NNCSC) was held at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) on the 3rd and 4th of December 2020 online. The NNCSC which is a flagship of cyber security skills enhancement in Namibia was held under the theme Cybersecurity Automated: Rethinking the human role. This year’s theme is a hallmark of rethinking our operations as we have witnessed the Internet and Technology becoming the ultimate enabler for the world in 2020. The competition attracted learners in high schools and tertiary institutions as cyber security officers of digital or computer networks/systems. Whilst cyber security practitioners from industry act as attackers and judges. The competition attackers try to hack into the student’s network/systems in order to test their cyber security skills.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the competition was held online and presented an opportune time for competitors to put theory into practice in a simulated environment otherwise not possible in a classroom setup and physical space. Four teams took park in the competition, namely; NUST Centre of Excellence in Information Technology (CEIT), NUST Faculty of Computing and Informatics (FCI), Lingua International College and Deutsche Höhere Privatschule Windhoek (DHPS), they defended their systems against industry based whitehat attackers. The attackers are headed by Mr Reghardt Joubert from Business Connexion, and hail from various
organisations, such as Green Enterprises, Telecom Namibia, Office of the Prime Minister, MTC, and National Planning Commission.

Category prizes were awarded for best injects (task completion); social engineering savviness which were scooped by NUST FCI, professionalism  which went to DHPS, and the best network uptime which was scooped by NUST CEIT. Of the 4 competing teams, the NUST CEIT team emerged victorious, NUST FCI took second place and Lingua International closed off the top three teams in the competition. The winners in various categories won trophies and medals sponsored by CSS Tactical Solutions, First prize by MTC, 2nd Prize by FNB, 3rd prize by Paratus Telecom, and the various category prizes for best uptime was sponsored by FNB, and the rest of the category prizes such best injects, social engineering and judges nomination by MTC .

The competition was judged by industry experts from all over the country comprised of representatives from Namibian Police, Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, NamFisa, Ongwediva MediPark, Office of the President and Ministry of Defence. They were led by Chief Inspector Penehafo Nghitamuka. To grace the pre-competition was a talk on mobile forensics by the CEO of Belkasoft, Mr Yuri Gubanov. The competition was closed by the NNCSC brand ambassador Exedin.