The fourth instalment of the Reply Cybersecurity Challenge is set to launch next month (15 October), with applications now open for teams to register and take part.
The group coding contest is open to cybersecurity enthusiasts and professionals worldwide, with support this year coming from Intesa Sanpaolo, one of Europe’s top banking firms, and software company Immersive Labs.
Last year’s challenge drew more than 10,000 participants from 160 countries, forming 2,380 teams of two to four players. The competition consists of a 24-hour marathon Capture The Flag (CTF) tournament, focusing on the identification of vulnerabilities purposely hidden within software and computer systems.
The Cybersecurity Challenge is part of Reply’s Challenges programme, which seeks to target the most innovative trends in coding, creativity, cybersecurity, and finance.
Developed by cybersecurity experts from Reply, the contest includes five gaming categories – coding, web, binary, crypto, and miscellaneous – which see players attempt to solve security problems and riddles of increasing difficulty in the fastest time.
The competition will be held on Friday 15 October, marking European Cybersecurity Month (ECSM) – an annual campaign that runs in October, striving to raise awareness of citizens, organisations, companies and institutions about the major cyber threats.
The three teams that achieve the highest scores come the end of the event will then present a report explaining the strategies they adopted during the challenge. The final score will then be determined by the highest number of hidden flags identified, plus a bonus awarded for the quick resolution of the problems.
Applications are now open and will stay open until 15 October. Teams can follow this link to register for free, either submitting the details of their team or by joining other players in random teams, and can then train in ‘sandbox’ mode on the challenges of previous editions.
The challenge is accompanied by the Train&Win programme, which allows teachers and students of more than 16 years to train together with problems to solve in CTF mode on the Reply Challenge platform, as well as win devices to be used for educational purposes. The platform can be used as a ‘cybersecurity gym’, with exercises and study materials available to help them prepare for the international competition next month.
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