Country’s future cybersecurity professionals compete in DICT’s HackForGov3
Co-writers: Josef Casangcapan & Shem James Caayon
The HackforGov Capture-the-Flag competition of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) began on Friday in Manila.
In order to compete in the national competition, students from various schools in the National Capital Region gathered to have a chance to advance to the next stage.
HackForGov aims for students to gain experience with online techniques and develop a greater understanding of the significance of cybersecurity through this competition, said the Cybersecurity Bureau of DICT and the Philippine National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-PH).
"What we are developing right now is pinaka importante—critical thinking. You need to be good at analyzing, sometimes psychological, hindi yan purely technical," stated Jose Carlos Reyes, Director of the Cybersecurity Bureau.
Students compete at the HackforGov competition organized by DICT in Manila. Organizers say they want students to enhance their technical skills & critical thinking online. Jekki Pascual, ABS-CBN News
The students have gathered in a room and have been assigned with tasks and scenarios. Their objective is to capture the flag that was hidden in the computer program. The scenarios given are quite similar to those in real life that they may eventually encounter, as Reyes said.
“Sharing these experiences and information, pag meron na sila, ‘o nangyari na sa amin yan, this is what we do’,” he said.
According to Reyes, the country really needs cybersecurity experts, and these students might be our future experts, whether they work in the private or public sectors. Even his bureau needs 200 cybersecurity experts.
One of the New Era University student teams that is a defending champion at the NCR level is Aldwin Tapican. He added that they had to put in a lot of practice for this challenge since he has to become effective in cybersecurity in the future.
Tapican, a student of computer science, investigated multiple aspects of cybersecurity, like looking into cybercrimes, encrypting data, and using steganography to hide information. Tapican aimed to understand how to protect advanced frameworks from cyber threats by looking into these topics.
Students compete at the HackforGov competition organized by DICT in Manila. Organizers say they want students to enhance their technical skills & critical thinking online. Jekki Pascual, ABS-CBN News
Angeline Jores, a Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) IT student, is one of the competition's few female competitors. She stated that she is pleased to represent women in the predominantly male IT industry and that women are capable of achieving success in this field.
Jores stated, “Pag attend namin dito achievement na po sa amin kahit di pa nanalo, kasi representative din kami ng school and at the same time bilang babae rin po,”
Before a nationwide tournament takes place somewhere in the fourth quarter of the year, the competition will also tour the provinces. The nation will compete in the international competition, represented by the winners of the national competition.
News source:https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/2024/5/3/students-compete-in-dict-s-hackforgov-1351
What's Your Reaction?
