Kaspersky and Hackathons Australia call students to win the Secur’IT Cup

Kaspersky and Hackathons Australia hosted the annual Secure’IT Cup, where students tackled complex security issues posed by new technologies and competed to win the grand prize of AUS $1,000.00. The competition took place on the 10th October weekend and was aimed at students aged 18 to 28 from 24 different universities across Australia. They formed 13 teams that were mentored by 11 industry experts. Teams brought new age ideas to help solve cybersecurity issues in augmented reality, virtual reality, machine learning and security of smart homes with 5G connectivity.

Kaspersky ANZ General Manager Margrith Appleby says, “Our partnership with Hackathons Australia gave students an opportunity to work alongside industry experts and learn how to solve threats online that go hand in hand with emerging technologies. Students then gained additional cybersecurity skills to add to their resume. It is important for industry and education to work together in bridging the skill gap to produce a new future of cybersecurity professionals.” Students were asked to submit a short video and or a description to explain their project on the official website. A mentor was then allocated to each team to help students refine their project. Mentors included representatives from Microsoft, Telstra, JA Australia and NSW Department of Communities and Justice.

Cyber security Specialist from Microsoft, Bronwyn Mercer was amongst the line up of mentors. She says, “The Secur’IT Cup provided the perfect environment for students to learn about cybersecurity and work together to create solutions to real-world security problems. I enjoyed being able to participate in the ideation process and share my experiences from the industry. I was really impressed with the determination of the students and the creativity of the solutions that the teams were able to produce in just two days.”

An expert panel of judges took a week to deliberate the top 3 winners. Matt Byrne, Research Associate from Federation University said, “I was blown away by the creativity, enthusiasm and ingenuity that the participants displayed.” It was finally decided over the weekend that the winning team by the name ByteMe won for their prototype in cybersecurity awareness and education targeting schools.

Team member, Ayesha Ahmed majoring in computer science at the University of Melbourne said, “What our team identified was how a lot of people don’t realise that cybersecurity is an actual issue because there is not enough information available. We focused on educating kids from the very beginning and teenagers in a simulation environment quizzing them on cybersecurity.”

Founder, Angela Bee Chan spoke about the birth and vision of Hackathon Australia, “In July 2015, a group of us regular hackathon go-ers were at a pub. We questioned the problems of the world and how could we make an impact on the future.” Chan who is also an evangelist at Schneider Electric adds, “A couple of the original members wanted to find out which hackathons were happening around Australia so they created an event on Facebook. In two hours, over 150 people were interested in attending. Consequently the website relaunched and till today this community supports one another to run the best hackathons in the world.”

This is the 2nd year running where Australian students participate in Kaspersky’s internationally recognised SecureIT cup. Due to the nature of Covid-19 and Stage 4 restrictions in Melbourne, this was the first online hackathon hosted by both organisers. Detailed information about the application procedure for Secur’IT Cup’20 can be found on the competition’s official website.