The University of the South Pacific’s (USP) Tonga Campus took out top honours at Tonga’s Computer Emergency Response Team Competition [CERT Tonga] organised Cyber Resilience Week.
Students from the USP Tonga Campus were invited to participate in the competition that aims to provide opportunities for future decision-makers, community leaders, local businesses, students, and IT personnel to learn more about cyber threats and attacks that have impacted Tonga over the past years.
CERT Tonga partnered with Retrospect Labs and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to hold a one-day Capture the Flag (CTF) style Incident Response Competition event.
Over the course of a day, the teams were given a number of different scenarios to work with, all representing different types of cybersecurity incidents. Each scenarios had different tasks.
The competition included other tertiary institutions in Tonga.
The USP Tonga campus fielded a team of 4 first-year students: David Paea, Paea Vaka, ‘Uluakiola Fine, and Paula Tukutau.
These students are pursuing Software Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, and Mathematics programmes.
USP Tonga Campus Director, Dr Robin Havea, said, “It was a first-time experience for our students to participate in a competition. Although they found it challenging at the beginning of the competition, they got better as the day progressed.”
The USP team was coached by Campus Student Leaning Specialist Mr Waisea Tabua and Assistant USPNet Operator Mr Tevita Helu.
At the end of the competition, USP Tonga was declared the winner of the competition having scored the highest points.
The team received $1000 TOP cash and other giveaway prizes.
The competition was the first in Tonga, and USP was the inaugural winner.
The competition provided a good experience and exposure for our first-year students to real-life cyber incidents.
