JerseyCTF 2023 Cybersecurity Competition Draws Record Participation

This year's Jersey Capture The Flag competition proved that participants and organizers could hack it, as the real-time event organized by NJIT students attracted 1,515 registrants comprising 801 teams from across the globe, all trying to crack 60 cybersecurity-based puzzles.

For the first time, the previously virtual event included an in-person component that supplemented the massive virtual participation. The on-campus presence also included 150 NJIT students, enticing CBS News to report live from NJIT as the event marched into its second day, bringing a better understanding about the importance of cybersecurity to the New York area.

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 leaders were ACM President Ethan Ho, NICC President Al Simpson and Tech/Project Lead and JerseyCTF founder Logan Reyes. In addition to organizing the event, students and Ying Wu College of Computing officials brought in partners including the NJ Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell (NJCCIC) along with corporate sponsors Google Cloud, OffSec, Palo Alto Networks and SpecterOps.

Simpson explained that this year's participants were presented with a theme behind the technical challenges. "A lot of CTF events are you just figuring things out. If you have that storyline to motivate you, you'll stick through it to the end. Our theme this year was we wanted to combine rogue AI and time travel. AI would, once smart enough, try to exact revenge on those who didn't help it!"

The challenges were grouped in five categories: web exploitation, crypto ciphers, binary, open source intelligence and digital forensics. Web exploits were the most-solved challenge, such as hijacking a cookie and redirecting the user, Simpson said. 

Mike Geraghty, New Jersey’s chief information security officer and director of the NJCCIC, 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 skill sets to bear in areas of planning, leadership, communication and addressing any number of unexpected problems,” he said. 

These students continually impress me with their level of talent, dedication and true intelligence.

An NJIT team, The Dropped Tables, took third place in the student division, boosted by the team's ninth-place finish out of 400 teams in the digital forensics category. Simpson added that another NJIT team, G1tc_Gu4rdians, is currently ranked 78th in the country.

Behind the scenes, “The amazing cooperation between ACM, NICC and SCI gave us more control over the entire event, and the ability to bring on more sponsors,” said Reyes.

Ho attested that problem-solving is a vital asset in producing JerseyCTF, saying that more people at the main table, or “mission control,” 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 principal engineer and coordinator. 

“These guys are all amazing, and ‘CTF is in very good hands. I’ll still help out where I can next year,” said Reyes. “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 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. 

Geraghty, who CBS reporter John Elliott called the “cyber czar of New Jersey,” said he is aligned closely with NJIT for important reasons. “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.”

NJIT's next CTF event is in October, sponsored by NICC, and followed by JerseyCTF IV in spring 2024.

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 Tables - 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:

1st place – Florida State University
$1,000 

2nd place – Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (CyberCastores)
$750 

3rd place – NJIT COPEsec - Tensei Ikeda
$500