UKZN-Stellenbosch Team Wins International Cyber Security Competition

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A joint UKZN and Stellenbosch University (SUN) team took first place in the Global Cyber Challenge 2.0 in the Strategy and Policy track. The team comprised of Drs Brett van Niekerk and Trishana Ramluckan from UKZN, and Mrs Noelle van der Waag-Cowling and a master’s candidate from SUN.

Participants from 55 countries competed across the three tracks of the challenge.

The team was multi-disciplinary, with van Niekerk (senior lecturer in Computer Science) leading the team and bringing technical experience. Ramluckan recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the School of Law, specialising in International Humanitarian Law related to cyber security. Van der Waag-Cowling is a researcher at the Security Institute for Governance and Leadership in Africa (SIGLA) at SUN, specialising in strategy.

Twelve teams were shortlisted from an initial assessment to compete in the semi-finals on the first day, and four progressed to the finals on the second day. The teams were presented with an evolving international cyber-attack crisis, and each team represented a specific country. They had to present a holistic incident response strategy based on technical, policy, social and economic factors. The UKZN-SUN team represented the German response.

Globally and nationally, cybersecurity skills have become imperative for every industry. Internationally, information security and cybersecurity have been recognised as scarce skills, with reported shortfalls in the number of skilled individuals for the global security workforce. In particular, there are shortages of skills capable of dealing with the complex challenges of international policy with respect to cyber-attacks. Internationally, cyber security is traditionally associated with technical disciplines such as computer science, and it is often the technical experts that help fill the skills gap when it comes to policies. However, the UKZN-SUN team illustrated that a truly multi-disciplinary team has the ability to excel compared to teams comprising of purely policy experts or technical experts.

The Global Cyber Challenge is organised by the CyberPeace Foundation, a non-governmental organisation based in India that focuses on promoting five United Nations sustainability goals with respect to the Internet. Its primary activities are advocacy, policy engagement, and capacity building.

Words: Sally Frost

Photographs: Supplied