CA Awards Cyber Security Hackathon University Student Winners

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) on 25th October 2019 recognized 43 students from 10 universities for exceptional skills at the Cyber Security Hackathon held at Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi.

The winners were selected through a rigorous judging criterion dubbed ‘Capture the flag’ challenge, a cyber-security competition where participants solved computer security problems by hacking into or defending computer systems.

The challenge was in two categories, Ethical Hacking, and Digital forensics. In the Ethical hacking category, Strathmore University emerged winners followed by KCA University and Meru University of Science and technology. In the Digital Forensics category, The University of Nairobi was declared the best followed by Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in the second position. Another team from the UoN emerged third.

Participants were also drawn the Presidential Digital Talent Program, Kisii University, Kenyatta University, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST) and the Technical University of Mombasa (TUM)

CA Ag. Director-General Ms. Mercy Wanjau said the Authority is undertaking various cybersecurity initiatives towards to build capacity amongst Kenyans on this subject and the hackathon is an example of one such initiative.

“The initiative has provided a great forum for interaction and knowledge exchange amongst cybersecurity enthusiasts in academia and the industry” noted Ms. Wanjau.

“As an Authority, we are happy that through this hackathon, we have adequately sparked conversations on cybersecurity and hopefully more and more Kenyans will be alert as they engage in their favorite platforms,” concluded Ms. Wanjau.

Kenyans are increasingly at risk of cybersecurity threats due to the high Internet and smartphone penetration rates in the country. During the period of April – June 2019, the National Kenya Computer Incident Response Team – Coordination Centre (National KE-CIRT/CC) detected 26.6 million cyber threat events as compared to 11.3 million cyber threat events detected in the period of Jan- March 2019.

The increase in cyber threat events detected is attributed to the global increase in malware including ransomware attacks during this period.

The Hackathon was held on the sidelines of the 2019 National Cyber Security Conference that was geared towards enhancing skill sets in the provision of cyber solutions and problem-solving skills in the online space.

The Authority through the National KE-CIRT/CC is the body mandated to coordinate response and manage cybersecurity incidents in Kenya.