National Infocomm Security Competition 2013

Our DMIT and SB students had done us proud in the National Infocomm Security Competition 2013 held on 17 June 2013 . The event was organised by GoSafeOnline.Sg and supported by iDA, this competition aimed to promote mental dexterity among students by challenging them to think like an IT security expert. In addition, students were required to propose feasible and cost effective IT security solutions to real world enterprise security case studies within a limited duration of time. Participants from various IHLs had to go through 2 rounds of competition:

• Preliminary round (25 May 2013):  The participating teams were given 8 hours to examine the case study and developed their IT security proposals in word document format onsite.
• Final round (15-16 June 2013):  The final round was a two-day onsite event. Teams that qualified for the final round would be given 8 hours to examine the final round case study and develop IT security proposals and presentation slides for presentation to the panel of judges on the subsequent day.

Two students from the DMIT school and one student from SB emerged as the winner for the competition. The group consisted of:

• DISM: Yang Xu Dong
• DBIT: Tan Shi Hui
• DFI: Alicia Dee

From L to R: Miss Tan Shi Hui, Ms Georgina Phua (DMIT Director), Mr Yang Xu Dong,
Miss Alicia Dee and Mr Liew Chin Chuan (DISM Course Chair).

The panel of judges.

Group photograph.

We congratulate the team for winning the competition and they walked away with three thousand dollars cash prize (S$3,000). The students have done us proud. Keep up the good work....

 

SP Graduation 2013

16 May 2013. “A milestone passed, new things begun, dreams as shining as the sun, a goal achieved, a victory won! That's Graduation!” -- Author unknown.

Another milestone is being marked at the SP Graduation 2013. We have a total number of 60 students from the Diploma in Infocomm Security Management (DISM) completed their 3-year course. Together with the graduands from other diploma courses, they will be receiving their Diploma certificate at the ceremony.

 

In addition, graduation awards are given out to DISM students who have completed and excelled in the course of study, namely:

Graduand awarded Gold Medal
YANG XUDONG

Graduand awarded Silver Medal
ANG KAH ENG

Graduands awarded Diploma with Merit
CHAN JIAN HUI
FONG JIA SHENG
DARRYL SW
JEREMY HENG WEN MING

DISM Gold Medalist, Yang Xudong.

DISM graduands taking a group photograph.

Once again, congratulations to all the DISM Diploma graduates!

ITSP Presentation 2013

On 10 May 2013, the fourteen groups of final year students presented the ideas and proposed solutions for their Infocomm Technology Security Projects. They also had to answer queries on their project proposals from the audience.
Watch out for the ITSP showcase in Aug when they present their completed projects!

ThinkSECURE's OSSA and OSWA Certification Examination

A group of DISM students had attended the ThinkSECURE's Organizational Systems Security Analyst (OSSA) and Organizational Systems Wireless Auditor (OSWA) courses conducted by the DMIT lecturers during the school vacation in March.

These students also took the professional examination and the results had been released. Students who passed the examination are as follows:

Organizational Systems Security Analyst (OSSA)

1. Alfred Hia Ching Wen
2. Bai Jiacheng
3. Bryan Koh Wei Xian
4. Chan Jun Yuan
5. Chia Ching Chuen
6. David Lim Jen Hong
7. Jaryl Ong Zhi Hao
8. Joleen Chan Geok Ching
9. Kwang Xuan Qing
10. Lai Qi Wei
11. Nikolas Tay Zhihao
12. Oh Han Yi
13. Ritchie Lam Qiaowei
14. Soo Dixon
15. Tan Cher Han Ian
16. Tan Swee How
17. Tay Jin Hao
18. Teo Wen Zong

Organizational Systems Wireless Auditor (OSWA)

1. Alvin Lau Tze Wen
2. Chua Wei Kiat
3. Leong Tian Ci Samuel
4. Lim Jun Liang
5. Ng Choon Heng
6. Tang Qun Yi Edmund
7. Yang Xudong
8. Yong Kim Wee Maverick

 Once again, Congratulations to the above students.

ECU's Cyber Security 'War Game'

After the successful launch of SP's Cyber Wargame Centre in January 2013, it is interesting to note that the idea and concept of Cyber Security 'War Game' training has attracted and gained significant attention in the cyber space.

Below is an article on the Edith Cowan University (ECU)'s Cyber Security 'War Game' training.

"HIGHLY competitive cyber security games are part of an intensive training program at Edith Cowan University (ECU) hailed by Federal Science and Research Minster Chris Evans as the only training of its kind in Australia.

As part of the training course, the ‘war games’ plot cyber attackers against defenders using a sophisticated scenario developed by ECU’s Security Research Institute team over six months. "

For the full article, please visit the following URL:
http://www.sciencewa.net.au/topics/technology-a-innovation/item/2101-cyber-security-%E2%80%98war-games%E2%80%99-prepare-students.html

ISACA Joint IHL Event

Road to InfoSec Professional
A Students-Lead Joint IHL Event Sponsored by ISACA Singapore

On 30th March 2013, Infocomm Security (InfoSec) students from Singapore Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechic and Nanyang Polytechnic gathered at Singapore Management University (SMU) for a joint Institute of Higher Learning (IHL) event organised with support from ISACA Singapore Chapter. The theme for this event was "Road to InfoSec Professional", which served as a platform for students from the various IHLs to network and share their knowledge in the field of InfoSec. In addition to networking opportunities, the event featured lightning talks from the student leaders themselves and a sharing session by professionals in the field.

To start off the event Mr Tong Seng Chee, ISACA Singapore Director of Academic Outreach, gave an opening address to the participants. During his address, he emphasised on the importance of InfoSec in the present times and the need to constantly improve ourselves in this field. Continuing from his opening address, Mr Tong also proceeded to share his past experiences and knowledge with the audience.

Several other professionals present at the event also chipped in and shared on how they developed their skills in the field over the years. One of the professionals present was none other than Mr Leonard Ong, the President of ISACA SG. During his sharing, Mr Ong touched on his early days in the industry and described his learning process over the years. Other speakers included Ryan Baxendale, a security consultant and veteran penetration tester at security-assessment.com and Teh Kaiwen, IT Youth of the Year Award winner.

After an enriching session by the professionals, the participants of the event were provided with an opportunity to network with each other over some light refreshments. This session effectively gave rise to numerous interesting conversations among both the students and professionals. Additionally, the lively atmosphere was enhanced by a mini inter-IHL quiz organized for the student participants, which added greater depth and quality to the interactions within students. As this section of the event went on, friendships were budding and bonding were forged.

Next in the lineup was the Lightning talks by the students leaders. These talks served to be a platform for students to share their experience in their niche areas in the field of InfoSec. The talks started off with a lighthearted sharing by Nikolas Tay, a first year student from Singapore Polytechnic (SP) about his journey in the field of InfoSec. During his speech, he addressed some of the common difficulties faced by newcomers to the field by providing some sound advice based on his personal experience.

Following this was a talk by Jeremy Heng and Ku Wee Kiat, two SP students who participate actively in Capture The Flag (CTF) competitions under the name Nandy Narwhals. Jeremy started off with the topic of Breaking Python Sandboxes, a presentation inspired by a puzzle in a recent competition. The presentation included a live demonstration of the concept which garnered a significant amount of interest within the audience. In the next portion, Wee Kiat presented the crowd with a unique presentation on the topic of Binary Visualization. During the course of his presentation, Wee Kiat touched on the various methods of analyzing files through visuals as opposed to other conventional methods.

Among the speakers were two groups from Temasek Polytechnic (TP) who brought two facinating topics to the table. The first group showcased a tool solely developed by students from TP, the Facebook Forensics Toolkit v2.0. The group touched on how data can easily be retrieved from social networks such as Facebook and archived into well organized "case files". Given the current popularity of social media, such a tool would prove extremely useful for gathering evidence against criminals during investigation of crimes. The second presentation entitled Cold Boot Project delved into the realm of digital forensics. The presentation was an analysis of data degradation within the Random Access Memory (RAM) of a computer over time (from the time when power has been cut off).

The next talk was conducted by Chia Yong Xiang from Nanyang Polytechnic. In his talk "Password Audit (On The Cloud)", Yong Xiang highlighted the significant role of could computing in the field of password audit and effectively illustrated the techniques used to carry it out. In addition, Yong Xiang also provided the audience with some interesting cloud password cracking services for the audience to try out.

To conclude the session, Ng Choon Heng from SP touched on a topic which took a different perspective towards security compared to the earlier talks: Social Engineering. In his talk entitled "Social Engineering - Psychological Manipulation", Choon Heng presented the crowd with a refreshing take on security as he tackled one of the most neglected areas of security, the human element. In addition, Choon Heng also highlighted some real life examples of successful social engineering, further emphasising that such attacks are relavant in today's InfoSec industry.

With the conclusion of the lightning talks, Mr Tong took the stage once again and gave a closing speech to the attendees along with presenting tokens of appreciation to the student president of each polytechnic present. The top four winners of the IHL Trivia Quiz also received their prizes, iPod Shuffles, from the event organizer, putting an ending note to this lovely afternoon.

Let us hope such event gets carried on in years to come and even become an everlasting tradition among ISACA Student Groups from various IHLs in Singapore.

Presentation slides available at: http://goo.gl/YgoYz

Complete photos availabe at: http://goo.gl/qMn9K

Photographs of the ISACA Joint IHL Event

Event Registration Booth

Emcee Kicking Start Event

Emcee Kicking Start EventMr. Tong Seng Chee Opening

ISACA & Academic Support In Person

ISACA & Academic Support In Person, Mr. Leonard Ong Sharing

Mr. Ryan Baxendale Sharing

 

Teh Kaiwen Sharing

Attentive Audience #1

Trivia Quiz Briefing

BriefingBreak / Networking #1

Break / Networking #2

Break / Networking #3

Marking Trivia Quiz

Nikolas Tay Presenting

Jeremy Heng Presenting

Ku Wee Kiat Sharing

Facebook Toolkit Presentation

Cold Boot Presentation

Chia Yong Xiang Presenting

Ng Choon Heng Presenting

Attentive Audience #2

Student Group Appreciation

Trivia Prize Winner

Intermission Group Photo

Article adapted from writeup by  Nikolas Tay (SP)

Event photos courtesy of  James Lai Zhiyuan (NYP)

DISM CTF System Handover

29th of March is the Good Friday. A group of DISM students (and soon to be graduates) came back to the Cyber Wargame Centre on the afternoon of this lovely public holiday.

They are the outgoing and upcoming organizing committee members of the DISM Capture The Flag (CTF) competition. And the seniors were back in the CWC lab to walk through and explain to their successors on details of DISM's very own CTF, which include but are not limited to the organizing objectives, server setup, network topology, application daemon, web interface, admin functionality, underlying design, expansion option and future directions.

The first season of DISM CTF in 2012 has been a success, albeit its relatively small scale. Let us hope in the hands of the new committee, in time to come there would be CTF S2, S3, S4... each of which achieves a new height!

Senior walking through the write-up grading and approval system

Upcoming CTF committee attentively watching a demonstration

Organizing Committee from different years engaged in discussion

Group photo of the two generations of committee with lecturers