Train&Win programme for Reply Cyber Security Challenge 2021 attracts over 700 participants

This year’s Reply Cyber Security Challenge, to be held on Friday October 15th at challenges.reply.com (@ReplyULabs), has been enriched with the Train&Win programme. The programme aims to create awareness among the new generation on the topic of cyber security.

Starting on September 20th teachers and students aged 16 and over, trained together on problem-solving activities in Capture the Flag (CTF) mode.

The Train&Win programme, which welcomed 716 participants and had 3,054 flags submitted, offered a playful approach for experimenting and learning sensitive topics such as cyber security, vulnerabilities and attack possibilities. Teachers and students trained together on the platform for three weeks with different riddles on five different  categories: Coding, Web, Binary, Miscellaneous and Crypto.

Each category requires the use of a different set of skills: logic, programming and scripting skills for Coding or reverse engineering for Binary, ability to find vulnerabilities in Web applications or a mix of skills for Miscellaneous. In addition, study materials were made available to help prepare for the international competition on October 15th.

Each week, a winner is selected from all the students who have scored points and submitted a valid flag. In the first week, the Johann Kepler Gymnasium in Leonberg, Germany, came out on top. The winner of the second week was a Belgian student from Henallux University, who is using the Reply Cyber Security Challenge as an exam in his course. In the third week, a student from the BMSZC Bláthy Ottó Titusz School of Computer Science and Technology in Budapest took the first place.

Martina Rosales from Johann Kepler Gymnasium:

“We are happy about the success of the Train&Win programme and welcome the playful approach to introduce our students to urgent topics like cyber security. The interest is great and shows the increased demand in all age groups. We welcome the idea and look forward to using the platform to solve more tasks.”

The Reply Cyber Security Challenge will be held on Friday October 15th at challenges.reply.com and aims to gather teams of 2 to 4 players to compete on a 24-hour marathon, ‘Capture the Flag (CTF) challenge’. The competition will be focused on the identification of vulnerabilities purposely hidden in software and computer systems.