A team of students from XMUM participated in 2018 BaiLu Cup Cyber Security Competition held at Xiamen University China (XMU) and won the “Excellence Prize” with a reward of RMB 1000 on 24 and 25 November 2018.

Aimed at cultivating the spirit of innovation and team work, the competition is held annually since 2015 to select, train, and recommend talents in the field of cybersecurity. The School of Information Science and Engineering, XMU China and Meiya Pico, a leading digital forensics and information security products and service provider in China, co-hosted the event.

Coached by Dr. Xiao Han, the XMUM team was selected as one of the 27 finalists for the unique two-day cyber range experience. Poking and prodding security flaws for eight straight hours behind their laptops, the XMUM team, called χ, used weaknesses they found to defend their servers, and exploited their myriad of security tools and knowledge to attack other teams’ servers. The χ team members are all coming from Computer Science and Technology Programme of XMUM: Second year student Bai Haotian and Huang Chonghao, and third year student Huang Xinyi. This is the first time XMUM fields a team in the competition.

The χ team put their cyber security skills to test at 2018 BaiLu Cup Cyber Security Competition. From the right is team leader Bai Haotian, Huang Chonghao, and Huang Xinyi.

“We are newbies in the field,” said team leader Bai Haotian, “the competition gives us opportunities to test our skills in a field that is both crucial and challenging. More importantly, we get great networking opportunity to meet influential players in the industry and pick up tips and advice to solve real-world problems.”

“Knowing that a lot of geeks out there can solve real-life cybersecurity situations with incredible prowess inspires and motivates us to hone our skills in this exciting field,” said the trio during a dialogue with Office of Research and Innovation.

38 teams from more than thirty universities participated in 2018 BaiLu Cup Cyber Security Competition, and only 27 advanced to the finals on 25 November 2018. The Lanc3t team from Beihang University (China), Ph0en1x team from XMU China, and Dubhe Team from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (China) ranked top 3 in the competition.