The 21st edition of CSAW Europe, involving 145 finalists representing more than 45 European universities from 13 different countries, was held at Grenoble INP – Esisar, UGA for the eighth consecutive year on 7 and 8 November.
CSAW (Cyber Security Awareness Week) is the world’s largest academic cybersecurity competition. Organised by the NYU Center for Cybersecurity, this event takes place simultaneously on several continents. In Valence, the participants went head to head in five competitions before a panel of some twenty renowned industry and academic experts in cybersecurity:
Applied Research Competition: Dedicated to doctoral students conducting research on all aspects of cybersecurity who are invited to submit an article published during the year in a top-ranked journal or conference, this competition focuses on research with a practical impact. The 10 shortlisted doctoral candidates were invited to present their work to a panel of academic and industrial experts at the event.
Capture The Flag: In this event dedicated to networks and IT, students are confronted with online IT security problems during the qualifying tests in September. The top 10 teams then compete in the finals for 36 hours in a row. This final takes place online.
Embedded Security Challenge (ESC): To qualify for the final of this event dedicated to the security of embedded systems, participants must first identify the vulnerabilities of a given system and then propose appropriate countermeasures. Competitors submit their entries in September and the qualified teams are invited to demonstrate their solutions to a panel of industry experts at the event.
Cybersecurity Awareness Communication Challenge (CAC²): The aim of this new event is to create communication materials to raise awareness of cybersecurity (such as a poster, game or video). Students from all disciplines can take part: the principle is to involve people with a wide range of skills and different technologies in the development of these materials.
Red Team Competition: Aimed at secondary school students in mainland France, the qualifying phase of this event takes place online in September, with challenges linked to web application security, information retrieval and cryptography. During the final, held on-site in November, teams have to infiltrate systems in order to find and analyse information using reconnaissance and intrusion-testing methods.
At the same time, an industry forum – Cyberday – was organised for schoolchildren, students and industrial enterprises, along with conferences and workshops covering economic, technical and legal aspects and raising awareness of cybersecurity. This event, dedicated to cybersecurity for manufacturers and SMEs and organised in partnership with Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Entreprises, also featured a variety of activities, including:
Robotics workshop – After drawing a sketch on a tablet, participants could then watch a robot create an identical copy of their drawing.
Lock-picking workshop – This fun and educational workshop introduced participants to the basics of physical security using padlocks and locks.
These activities enhanced the event by combining education, interaction and innovation for a wide range of audiences.
