On 20-21 April, doctoral students at Karlstad University participated in an international student cyber security challenge, organised by the Atlantic Council. The challenge involved acting as advisers on international security issues linked to crisis situations caused by cyber attacks.
Earlier this year, the team Dr Robot, Karlstad University, won the national Cyber Challenge 2017 contest, hosted by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, and was offered funding for participating in the international contest, Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge 2017.
Competed against United States Military Academy
For two days Dr Robot competed against 24 student teams, among others from United States Military Academy and University of Oxford, at Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP).
”Two weeks before the competition we received information and an intelligence report on fictitious cyber attacks, targeting hospitals and health care systems, and we prepared a presentation of proposals on how to handle the attack from a security policy perspective,” says Jenni Reuben, doctoral student in computer science at Karlstad University.
Dr Robot advanced to the second round
During the first day of competition the teams presented their recommendations to a jury, which selected 15 teams for further participation. In the second round, the teams received further intelligence to develop new recommendations. The Karlstad team worked on a proposal till three in the morning, and presented it a few hours later.
The competition concluded with a final round with four teams. The winning team represented Geneva School of Diplomacy and the best Swedish team finished in third place.
”We are impressed with and happy for the Swedish Defense University’s team and their third place in this challenging and energy consuming competition. Beyond the actual competition we learnt a lot about the challenges and consequences of cyber attacks to present day society. We listened, for instance, to interesting lectures on cyber security issues given by ambassadors and corporate leaders,” says Alexandre Sukhov, doctoral student at the Center for Service Research (CTF), Karlstad University
Dr Robot comprised four doctoral students: Jenni Reuben (computer science), Nurul Momen (computer science), Alexandre Sukhov (CTF) and Sebastian Dehling (CTF), and their supervisor Lothar Fritsch, assoc. prof., computer science at Karlstad University.
Read more about the contest: http://www.gcsp.ch/Events/Cyber-9-12-Student-Challenge
