Team 'Hoping to Make the Finals' won the 2023 CGGC Cyber Guardian Challenge showcasing what it takes to be Information Security big shots

Striving to strengthen the joint information security defense capabilities of academic and research organizations and science parks, the National Science and Technology Council has supported the development of information security bases and the ecosystem of the information security industry in Shalun, Tainan. In executing the policy of the National Science and Technology Council, the National Center for High-Performance Computing under National Applied Research Laboratories (NARLabs NCHC ) has joined forces with NDS to jointly host the 2023 CGGC Cyber Guardian Challenge to pool together the information security energy in the information security base in Shalun, Tainan. This event also transferred more information security resources and professional defense knowledge to academic and research organizations and science parks to facilitate the growth of the ecosystem of the local information security industry and bring about positive influences to the information security industry in Taiwan.

The 2023 CGGC Cyber Guardian Challenge is a stage established for those behind-the-scenes and unsung guardians of cyber information security. Contestants were information security personnel in academic and research organizations and businesses in science parks. Ultimately, the team "Hoping to Make the Finals" emerged as the champions and claimed the NT$100,000 award.

The National Science and Technology Council Information Department Director Zhou Ziyuan (first from right) presented awards to the champions.

This competition included an online preliminary round and an in-person, physical final. The online preliminary round was held on the NCHC's cloud information security attack and defense platform (CDX) for 36 consecutive hours to vie for the flag, and the final competition was held in Building A, the National Science and Technology Council information security and intelligent technology R&D building in Shalun, Tainan. It was a test of real security defense battle with the final defense environment using NCHC's facility service platform. The participating teams needed to learn the latest information security defense techniques, protect their hosts from attacks, and demonstrate comprehensive information security skills. Furthermore, the competition also placed emphasis on the idea of regional joint defense and the sharing of security intelligence, and encouraged participants to cooperate with one another to improve information security capabilities together.

NCHC Director General Chau-Lyan Chang (second from right) presented awards to second-place winners.                                Professor Chen Jiamei of National Sun Yat-sen University Information Management Department (third from left) presented awards to third-place winners.

In addition to the fierce competition, this event also included a series of forums "Looking from Shalun Information Security Base at what's ahead in information security in 2024" where invited guests He Yilin, CTO of the successful startup ZUSO Generation critiqued the strengths and weaknesses of the latest information security red team practices, Kuon, a well-known white hat hacker and founder of Funny Systems, reflected on the counterpoints of zero trust in information security, and Hu Chenhao, president of the Taiwan branch of the international information security organization OWASP, talked about information security software in the supply chain from the vantage point of OWASP.

NCHC Director General Chau-Lyan Chang indicated that information security work is challenging. NCHC is committed to cultivating information security professionals, providing a stage for the academic and research community to showcase their technical capabilities through practical competitions. It also brought together passionate information security professionals so that the domestic information security circles would become more solid and fortified. NCHC Network and Information section head Li Boyi said that it was NCHC's hope that this competition would become the first platform for information security teams to continuously refine their information security capabilities and practice their information security protection drills. It also hoped to nudge industrial, academic, and research organizations to actively invest in information security to enhance Taiwan's overall capabilities in information security protection and industrial competitiveness. NCHC will continue to hold similar information security competitions to promote cooperation and innovation in the academic and research communities, and strengthen Taiwan's overall information security defense capabilities.

2023CGGC Video