Ensuring cyber security is one of the most challenging issues for any country in the modern world. The Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh has taken various contemporary programs related to cyber security, realizing the importance of the issue with the aim of building a smart Bangladesh.
In continuation of this (Saturday, May 20), the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Department of the Military Institute of Science Technology (MIST) and the initiative of Leetcon and the ICT (ICT) Division of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC), and Digital Security Agency (DSA) organized “MIST Leetcon 2023: HackMelfYouCan” in a festive atmosphere at MIST campus in collaboration with DSA.
Mr. Junayed Ahmed Palak, MP, Hon’ble Minister of State for Information and Communication, ICT Department, Government of Bangladesh, was present as the chief guest in the closing phase of the program.
MIST Leetcon 2023: HackMelfYouCan was inaugurated by Brigadier General Md Mahfuzul Karim Mazumder, NDC, PSC, TE, Dean of Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Head of Department of Computer Science and Engineering, MIST.
The CTF (Capture the Flag) competition titled “HackMelfYouCan” was open to students from all educational institutions of the country as well as government and private institutions.
Cyber Security Based CTF Contest participants use experience and practical knowledge in various areas of information security to solve various challenges related to cyber security such as cryptography, web exploitation, reverse engineering, forensics, network analysis, etc.
A total of 351 teams participated in the qualifying round of the competition out of which 100 teams got the opportunity to participate in the final round. Among the participants in the final stage, 75 teams from 72 educational institutions of the country; And the remaining 25 teams participated from various corporate organizations including Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Police, Dhaka Stock Exchange Limited, Commercial Bank.
Apart from this, 5 workshops on Cyber Security for Government Application and Infrastructure, Lift-off towards zero-day Adventure, Cloud Security, API Security in 2023 and Car Hacking were organized for the purpose of cyber awareness in which a total of 321 students participated. The workshop titled “Cyber Security for Government Application and Infrastructure” was conducted by Sadman Tanjim, CEO, Secupent.
The workshop titled “Lift-off towards zero-day Adventure” was conducted by Information Security Researcher – Almas Zaman and the workshop titled “Cloud Security” was led by Senior Associate of Pentest Lead, Zubair Al Naji.
Also two workshops titled “API Security in 2023” and “Car Hacking” were conducted online by TCM Security Content Creator Alex Olsen and Information Security Researcher- Ayyappan Rajesh respectively.
The speakers enlightened the students on theoretical and practical learning on various topics like Cyber Security, API Security, Cloud Security, Car Hacking etc.
MIST Leetcon 2023: Red Rebels, a team from cyber security club Daffodil International University, won first place in the HackMelfYouCan competition. AIUB’s Silent Killer and NSTU’s Federal Bank Investigations occupied the second and third positions respectively.
During the announcement of results and distribution of prizes, the chief guest Mr. Junaid Ahmed Palak, MP awarded a total of five lakh tk and mementos to the champion team of CTF, including two lakh tk and three lakh tk to the other winners.
In his speech, the chief guest mentioned the various steps taken by the Bangladesh government for the development of information and communication technology. Apart from this, Smart emphasized on creating skilled manpower in the field of cyber security in Bangladesh and taking effective measures to deal with cyber threats.
He expressed hope that programs like HackMelfYouCan will usher in new horizons in the cyber security sector in Bangladesh.
Acting Commandant of MIST, Brigadier General Mohammad Wahidul Islam, SUP, NDC, PSC, as the chief sponsor, thanked the chief guest and all the guests of the closing ceremony.
He promised that MIST will play its role in developing information technology through education and research. He specially thanked the ICT Division, Bangladesh Computer Council, Digital Security Agency, Leetcon, sponsoring organizations, CTF and workshop participants and members at all levels associated with the event.
On the occasion, MIST Leetcon 2023: HackMelfYouCan Organizing Chair Brigadier General Md. Mahfuzul Karim Majumder, NDC, PSC, TE in his speech praised the skills of the contestants and mentioned the importance of cyber security and CTF and gave motivational speech to the students.
Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) Executive Director Ranjit Kumar and Digital Security Agency (DSA) Director General Nahid Sultana Mallick also spoke on the occasion.
The Computer Science and Engineering Department of the Military Institute of Science and Technology was engaged in the overall supervision of the entire program. Besides, MIST Cyber Security Club and MIST Computer Club were in full support of the event. VMware, Ffive and Trust Bank Limited were the sponsors.