European Cyber Security Challenge 2017: Competition results
The 10-member National Cybersecurity Team was in Malaga, Spain, where the final of the major pan-European cybersecurity competition, European Cyber Security Challenge 2017 (ECSC '17), was held betweenOctober30and November 3, 2017. The Greek team ultimately fell to 12th place, from the 1stplace it held for most of the competition, after a chaotic competitive process that the Spanish organizers reserved for the participants.
Competition timeline
Initially, the competition was delayed due to technical problems. With the start of the competition process (over an hour late) and while the technical problems had been partially resolved (as only 15-20% of the tests that had been planned were available), the Greek participation started strongly, remaining in 1stplace for over 5 whole hours! Subsequently, the competition platform collapsed, followed by a manual competition process, in which chaos prevailed, both in the distribution of the exercises among the 15 competing countries, and in the collection of the results. The distribution of the challenges was now done via USB to each team separately (a process that was variable, as there was no central coordination and control of the material/challenge distribution). During this time, the scoreboards went out and the teams did not know their position. Each competing team that unlocked a challenge and won the flag (based on the Capture-The-Flag training process) handed it over on "papers" to the jury, which in turn recorded (now manually) the score.
The long competition process continued in the same way, with problems remaining and worsening instead of being resolved. The national teams, given the situation, competed without a goal, without a strategy, and without any information.
A few hours before the end of the competition at 4:00 p.m. (originally scheduled for 5:00 p.m., which was postponed to 7:00 p.m.) and while improvised scoreboards were set up, Greece, from 1stplace appeared in 14thplace out of 15, without a clear picture of its victories and defeats per test.
The announcement of the results
The above development did not help the jury to decide on the final ranking in an absolute and transparent manner, resulting in a marathon of consultations. After the completion of the competition process, the Greek participation failed (according to the jury) to be distinguished in a high position and late in the evening, during the official dinner, it was announced that it shared 7thplace with other teams. The next day, the jury came back with a new announcement where the Greek team finally took 12thplace .
"A safe conclusion that we can draw from the EuropeanCyberSecurityChallenge 2017 is that a lot of work and effort is needed, both at the European and national levels, to improve the know-how and skills of all of us in the field of cybersecurity," according to the head professor of the Greek mission, Mr. Christos Xenakis.
The organizing team of the national mission would like to thank the members of the national team, both for the competitive effort they made, and for their ethos and behavior during the competition. The University of Piraeus, as the central body of the National organization, will continue the effort of our country's participation in the EuropeanCyber Security Challenge 2017 in the coming years, aiming at the continuous education of our youth in the field of cybersecurity, which is also a key objective of the competition.
Finally, the national team that participated in the EuropeanCyber Security Challenge 2017would like to warmly thank the sponsors and supporters of this effort and declare that it will continue to work to establish a national line of defense for CyberSecurity.
DiamondSponsors:ADACOM, FOCAL POINT
Platinum Sponsor:Media Markt, Quest Group (Info Quest Technologies, Uni Systems)
Gold Sponsors:Neurosoft, UBITECH
Silver Sponsors:Exus
DiamondTransportationSponsor:AegeanAirlines
Supporters:Netsquare, Thales, Athens – Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport
Equipment Supporters:Alcatel, devolo, Sencor
Media Sponsors:Biztech.gr, Epixeiro.gr, Huffington Post, IT Professional Security, NetFax, Netweek, PC Magazine, ReCred, SecNews, Spoudazo.gr, Tech Matrix
Our national team has its own digital space at www.ecsc.gr where interested parties can be informed about all the details of the competition. Current developments of the ECSC 2017 are recorded daily and on the team's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/HellenicTeam-EuropeanCyberSecurityChallenge
The competition is an initiative of the European Network and Information Security Agency ENISA(www.enisa.europa.eu), which operates as the European Union. The Department of Digital Systems of the University of Piraeus undertook the organization and coordination of the Greek participation this year. The Greek participation was supported by the Ministry of Digital Policy, Telecommunications & Informationand the Greek Embassy in Spain.
