School of Science

Monday, 12 August 2024

Ninety-two teams of high school students around Australia went head-to-head on the weekend for PECAN+ Capture The Flag 2024, battling it out to solve exciting cyber security challenges, including themes of cryptography, digital forensics, open-source intelligence gathering and web exploitation.

PECAN+ is a national cyber security Capture the Flag (CTF) style competition, developed and managed by the Edith Cowan University School of Science. It is a collaborative initiative that brings together Australian higher education and vocational institutions, cyber security industry, Government, teachers and students around the aim of raising cyber security awareness, skills and aspirations.

Students attended higher-education venues around the country to sit a four-hour marathon in which they tackled over 70 cyber security challenges developed for beginners, intermediate and advanced levels. The goal of each challenge was to recover a novel string of text - letters, numbers and characters - called a “flag”. Under a whole-of-ecosystem model, these PECAN+ CTF challenges were created and contributed by Australian university students and Government staff.

Following strong contest, first, second, third and fourth-placed Teams in the Intermediate and Advanced divisions were announced. PECAN+ CTF has a focus on encouraging diversity and gender inclusion in cyber security. Prizes for top All Female Teams and the Top Indigenous Competitor were also awarded to deserving young competitors.

Capture The Flags (CTFs) are competitions involving many aspects of cyber security, including themes such as cryptography, digital forensics and reverse engineering, together with teamwork, problem-solving and computing and coding skills. In preparation, young competitors were given access to training opportunities in the lead-up to Competition Day, including PECAN+ Training Days led by higher-education student volunteers and representatives from the cyber security industry. Panel sessions and guest attendances by cyber security government and private sector representatives further provided students with insights into cyber security career options around the country. To tackle challenges, all competitors were given access to a cyber tool kit in the form of a virtual machine, thanks to Kasm Workspaces.

In its sixth year, PECAN+ CTF, has grown to see high-school students in every Australian State and Territory compete. PECAN+ CTF 2024 welcomed the inaugural inclusion of students in the Northern Territory. Led by the NT Department of Corporate and Digital Development, students competed at a Charles Darwin University venue. In Queensland, students competed at the TAFE Queensland (South Bank) Campus with support from White Rook Cyber. The Australian Capital Territory’s activity was led by the Canberra Cyber Hub, giving opportunity for students to compete at either the University of Canberra or in the ASD-ANU Co-Lab at The Australian National University. Box Hill Institute and Monash College welcomed Victorian students, while in New South Whales students competed at the University of Wollongong Liverpool Campus with support from Life Journey, and in Tasmania, students battled it out from the University of Tasmania’s Hobart and Launceston Campuses. As the National lead of PECAN+ CTF, Edith Cowan University welcomed almost 100 Western Australian students to compete at the ECU Joondalup Campus.

PECAN+ CTF 2024 was made possible with the support of National Sponsors the Australian Signals Directorate, Yira Yarkiny Group, Seamless Intelligence, Sekuro and the Office of Digital Government Western Australia as well as prize Sponsors Trustwave and Hack The Box and numerous regional sponsors and supporters. PECAN+ CTF is proudly founded and led by the Edith Cowan University School of Science and is brought to life with the support of Tech Lead, Tom Plant.