JerseyCTF 2023 Competition Tops Previous Record Year
If ever the student coordinators of the annual JerseyCTF Competition proved they could hack it, this year tested their skill and endurance in real-time as never before. New organizational leadership and partnerships transpired to attract 1,515 registrants comprising 801 teams from across the globe to crack a total of 60 cybersecurity-based puzzles, exceeding the already record-shattering 2022 edition of the event.
This year, the competition was held virtually as well as on-campus at NJIT, a pre-COVID return to the immediate, human reality of the in-person experience. The addition of hosting a live tv broadcast by John Elliot from CBS news allowed millions of viewers in the NY metro area an opportunity to share the excitement of the competition – and a better understanding that the issue of national security is more than just games.
The 2023 event was a collaborative effort between the student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the NJIT Secure Computing Initiative (SCI), and the NJIT Information and Cybersecurity Club (NICC). The core team led by ACM President Ethan Ho, NICC President Al Simpson and Tech/Project Lead & JerseyCTF founder Logan Reyes all remarked that working together with the tireless support of their e-boards allowed the competition to achieve a greater level of success across all areas.
Reyes said, “the amazing cooperation between ACM, NICC and SCI gave us more control over the entire event, and the ability to bring on more sponsors, including OffSec, Google Cloud, SpecterOps, GitHub, and Palo Alto.”
Mike Geraghty, Director of Cybersecurity and State CISO – NJCCIC (NJ Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Cell), has been the lead sponsor since the competition’s inception three years ago and noted that JerseyCTF is the perfect training ground for understanding cybersecurity in practice. “Through this event you must bring your best skillsets to bear in areas of planning, leadership, communication and addressing any number of unexpected problems,” he said.
Ho attested that problem-solving is a vital asset in producing JerseyCTF, saying that more people at the main table, or “mission control,” as he called it, gave the team an edge on managing the on-site event, responding to questions and technical issues, and even banning hackers trying to hack the competition!
This year’s event was bittersweet for Reyes, a graduate student in the M.S. IT Administration and Security program, who, after three years of building the competition from inception to this past weekend’s unprecedented triumph, will be stepping down as its principle engineer and coordinator.
He stated, “These guys are all amazing, and ‘CTF is in very good hands. I’ll still help out where I can next year. NJIT has been such an important part of my life and I plan to be a part of it long after I graduate in December.”
Ian Hanna, currently a junior B.S. in Information Technology major, will assume leadership of the many projects with which Reyes was involved. He finds the prospect “a little scary,” but already has constructed an outline for 2024. “I intend to plan even earlier than last year. We’re getting started on this virtually right now. Among other priorities, I want to leverage NICC and ACM to network with many more schools to increase student participation,” he said.
In answer to the question of why Geraghty, whom CBS reporter John Elliott called the “cyber czar of New Jersey,” has chosen to align so closely with NJIT, he said, “I am essentially responsible for all your information in the state of New Jersey. But I also have a responsibility to nurture the development of the next generation of cybersecurity professionals, and NJIT is a very important part of that. These students continually impress me with their level of talent, dedication and true intelligence.”
2023 JerseyCTF Winners
Student Division:
1st place – View Source - Plymouth-Canton Community Schools
$1,000 cash, Black Hat Briefings Virtual Conference Voucher
2nd place – KCSC - Vietnam Academy of Cryptography Techniques
$750 cash, Choice of one CompTIA Certification Basic Bundle (Security+, PenTest+, CySA+, or CASP+)
3rd place – The Dropped Table - NJIT & BKISC - Vietnam [tie]
Proton $100 gift card (Proton Mail, VPN, Drive, and Calendar)
Non-Student Division:
1st place – Cryptoverse - China
$1,000 cash, Black Hat Briefings Virtual Conference Voucher
2nd place – RedHazzarTeam - Russia
$750 cash, Choice of one CompTIA Certification Basic Bundle (Security+, PenTest+, CySA+, or CASP+)
3rd place – FR13NDS TEAM - Kazakhstan
$500 cash, Proton $100 gift card (Proton Mail, VPN, Drive, and Calendar)
SFS (Scholarship for Service) – CyberCorps:
***cash only***
1st place – Florida State University
$1,000
2nd place – Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (CyberCastores)
$750
3rd place – NJIT COPEsec - Tensei Ikeda
$500