EU support: SSSCIP held the UA30CTF cybersecurity competition for students

The State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine, with the support of the EU4DigitalUA project funded by the EU, held the UA30CTF cybersecurity competition. 156 students of III-VI courses from 22 institutions of higher education of Ukraine took part in the competition.

The first place was taken by the team 4n0M4IY (National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”), second and third—Ghost of Sheva (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv) and Silent Sparrow (Kyiv National Economic University)

The competition took place in the format of the #Jeopardy CTF game. During six hours, the teams solved 25 problems both on logic and on finding and exploiting vulnerabilities with a combination of solving interesting logical problems of different levels of difficulty. The purpose of the event was to develop students’ practical skills in the field of cybersecurity.

“One of the priorities of the SSSCIP in the area of reforming the sphere of cyber protection is the human resources development, in particular, increasing the level of training of future specialists. To this end, the SSSCIP not only began reforming formal education, but also initiated the practical events, like this one, where students will have the opportunity to apply their knowledge during competitions. I hope that in the future there will be more and more such events in Ukraine,” said Deputy Head of SSSCIP Viktor Zhora.

Maria Gaston Betran, EU4DigitalUA, noted: “Every day, cyber threats are getting more sophisticated and complex. Qualitative education and practical skills are the key to shaping the future in any area. At EU4DigitalUA, funded by the EU, we understand the importance of growing IT expert community in Ukraine. We need bright, ambitious and dedicated experts to join the fight against these threats and help protect our digital world. That is why we were glad to support this hackathon that allowed students to obtain more practical skills and explore the vast opportunities in the field of cybersecurity”.

In addition to participating in competitions, students had the opportunity to attend lectures on cybersecurity by leading Ukrainian specialists in this field. In particular, CISSP CISA OSCP Volodymyr Styran, CEO of the Molfar agency Artem Starosiek and Head of the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine CERT-UA Yevheniia Volivnyk.

The support is carried out within Component 3 of the Project, Communication and Public Awareness, which focuses on informing and raising awareness as to digitalisation in Ukraine. EU4DigitalUA, funded by the EU, regularly supports the development of IT education in Ukraine. Since 2022, the project has been implementing IT-studios to update school IT education within Component 2.