
Cyber Challenge. A new level. Online competition from Rostelecom Solar
The opposition of the sword and the shield is an eternal thing. For every armor that is excellent for its time, after a couple of years (or decades) there is sure to be a sword that will crumble such a suit quite vigorously. Frightened by the presence of such a sword, the guys from the defense industry will create a new armor that will be a good defense. Until they come up with a new sword again. In general, this is the question of whether it would be good to maintain the current state of protection.
With cybersecurity, everything is similar. Viruses of a decade ago no longer scare anyone, even people far from information technology, because the basic OS protection system copes with them. But with modern encryptors, for example, everything is not so simple. You can get along with all kinds of paid antiviruses, but if you do not follow sound network hygiene and occasionally run “pictures” with the .exe extension from the administrator, the result will be sad. But predictable. The more widespread the Internet as a whole becomes, the more information threats become. And it’s not even a matter of increasing the number of “mother hackers” who need your mother’s maiden name to crack mail, but also that there are more and more cracking methods using new technologies and tools.

Fortunately, the number of those who want to speak on the side of the “whites,” that is, defense, is also growing. Pupils and students are actively interested in technology and are studying counter-threats.
We in Rostelecom decided to build the School-University-Employer system for such children. And now we will talk about how our new educational program for students will be held.
We are hosting an online competition called Cyber Challenge. A new level ”for those who are interested in information security and who would like to try their hand at business. The tasks will be both theoretical and practical. We will analyze live cases on protecting corporate environments and banking infrastructure.
The key topic of the competition will be ACS TP (automated process control system). Indeed, if an attacker gains access to it (in any production), it will be difficult to overestimate the potential harm. Therefore, the tasks will be associated precisely with its protection.
In addition, we will touch upon these areas:
These are the tasks that must be solved by those who decide to participate in the competition.
Cyber Challenge is an entrance ticket to our educational program and internship at the Solar JSOC Monitoring Center . We will offer participants to solve problems on the topics described above. Scoring will be automatic - the more people solve a specific problem, the less points they will give for it. For example, if a problem is solved by everyone at all, it will bring everyone much less points than a task that two people have solved. These two will get more points for such a task.
The rating of participants will be available in real time throughout the entire digital match. Then we will select the 60 people who scored the most points and arrange an interview with them on Skype, after which 40 finalists will be determined. They will go first to “Sirius” for the educational program on information security, and then the best will go to our monitoring center for an internship, during which it will be possible both to collect good material for their term papers and diplomas, and to think about employment.
Of course, there will be those who are wildly interested in the subject itself and want to go to work in these areas, but they did not manage to get into the competition or become its finalist. This is not scary, because we will post video courses on our resources in order to properly organize distance learning.
In general, it will not be boring.
With cybersecurity, everything is similar. Viruses of a decade ago no longer scare anyone, even people far from information technology, because the basic OS protection system copes with them. But with modern encryptors, for example, everything is not so simple. You can get along with all kinds of paid antiviruses, but if you do not follow sound network hygiene and occasionally run “pictures” with the .exe extension from the administrator, the result will be sad. But predictable. The more widespread the Internet as a whole becomes, the more information threats become. And it’s not even a matter of increasing the number of “mother hackers” who need your mother’s maiden name to crack mail, but also that there are more and more cracking methods using new technologies and tools.

Fortunately, the number of those who want to speak on the side of the “whites,” that is, defense, is also growing. Pupils and students are actively interested in technology and are studying counter-threats.
We in Rostelecom decided to build the School-University-Employer system for such children. And now we will talk about how our new educational program for students will be held.
What will it be
We are hosting an online competition called Cyber Challenge. A new level ”for those who are interested in information security and who would like to try their hand at business. The tasks will be both theoretical and practical. We will analyze live cases on protecting corporate environments and banking infrastructure.
The key topic of the competition will be ACS TP (automated process control system). Indeed, if an attacker gains access to it (in any production), it will be difficult to overestimate the potential harm. Therefore, the tasks will be associated precisely with its protection.
In addition, we will touch upon these areas:
- cryptography;
- forensic;
- incident investigation (including low level);
- web security;
- search and exploitation of binary vulnerabilities;
- reverse engineering.
These are the tasks that must be solved by those who decide to participate in the competition.
Why participate at all and how the selection will be held
Cyber Challenge is an entrance ticket to our educational program and internship at the Solar JSOC Monitoring Center . We will offer participants to solve problems on the topics described above. Scoring will be automatic - the more people solve a specific problem, the less points they will give for it. For example, if a problem is solved by everyone at all, it will bring everyone much less points than a task that two people have solved. These two will get more points for such a task.
The rating of participants will be available in real time throughout the entire digital match. Then we will select the 60 people who scored the most points and arrange an interview with them on Skype, after which 40 finalists will be determined. They will go first to “Sirius” for the educational program on information security, and then the best will go to our monitoring center for an internship, during which it will be possible both to collect good material for their term papers and diplomas, and to think about employment.
Important dates and numbers
- Until July 19, inclusive: you need to register on the Cyber Challenge website .
- July 20–21: online stage of the competition.
- July 22-24: Interview with the finalists of the first stage.
- September 8–22: educational program in Sirius .
- 18–22: age limits for participants.
- 0 rubles: the amount that the finalists will spend on travel and accommodation during the educational program.
To those who did not hit
Of course, there will be those who are wildly interested in the subject itself and want to go to work in these areas, but they did not manage to get into the competition or become its finalist. This is not scary, because we will post video courses on our resources in order to properly organize distance learning.
In general, it will not be boring.