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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Cybersecurity education should start early

By Ellyne Phneah , ZDNet Asia on June 19, 2012

Educating students on cybersecurity should start as early as possible, considering they are being exposed to the latest technologies at an increasingly young age, say industry watchers. They suggest an integrated, holistic approach for the curriculum but are divided as to whether hacking skills need to be taught.

Liew Chin Chuan, course manager for the diploma of infocomm security management at Singapore Polytechnic, added that students enrolled in its curriculum are required to learn about hacking techniques in the context of how attacks are carried out and the counter-measures that can be implemented to prevent these.

For the full article, please click this URL.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

DISM SIG Get-together Session

On the afternoon of June 13th, a group of students came back to school for DIS Special Interest Group (SIG) get-together session which was the first official meeting in the new semester, which was attended by a mixture of students from year 1, 2 and 3 as well as some lecturers.

During the meeting course manager Mr Liew Chin Chuan and SIG senior members introduced SIG and ISACA Student Chapter to junior students and also explained on the objectives as well as what activities are entailed by each.

All meeting participant also took the opportunity to briefly introduced themselves one by one so as to get acquainted with and know each other better.

A brief feedback exercise was then conducted regarding the ongoing DISM CTF, followed by the announcement of the upcoming ISACA Day.

Some year 2 attendees raised a few questions regarding one of their current modules and final year students in response shared about how they learned with online tutorials and how they tackled assignments in the past.

At the later part of the meeting there was the debrief of the CDDC which took place last week. Each of the three participating team sent 2 representatives to talk on their learning journey, decision making and individual feelings.

A few short surveys on the Hack In The Box (HITB) KL and AIRRAID 4 Capture The Flag (CTF) tournaments that are taking place in the next few months were made towards the end.

The meeting started from 1pm and lasted for approximately 3 hours. It was in overall quite a significant and fruitful session. Some junior students expressed their interest to join SIG on the spot. Before long we might be delighted to see some new blood.

Monday, June 11, 2012

DISM Team Emerged as CDDC Champion

In the recently concluded Cyber Defenders Discovery Camp jointly organised by the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) and the Defence Ministry’s Defence Research and Technology Office to promote interest in the cyber security industry, one of our very own DISM team Orion clinched the top position as well as a hefty prize of 10,000 thousand dollars

One corner of the competition hall on the second day

The second day of the competition was especially intense. Despite the huge lead obtained by our DISM team Orion after the first day, others were going all out to catch up, through means such as securing access into the internal network, social engineering against opponent teams for the extra edge and analyzing network and system vulnerabilities for reports. Even the game masters decided to release more Kamikazes nearer to the end so that other teams could have a chance to catch up.

Nonetheless, our team Orion which was made up Yang Xudong (year 3), Jeremy Heng (year 3), Goh Kee Chin (year 3) and Han Xingjie (year 2) managed to submit several more valid reports gaining another thousand plus points and thus was able to hold on to their first place in the IHL section till the very last second.

The final score board after the end of the competition

The other two DISM teams which comprised of Tan Jun Xiang, Edmund Teo, Gabriel Li, Ian Tan Cher Han, Chua Wei Kiat, Valda Goh, Maverick Yong and Lim Jun Liang also performed to a high standard in this four day camp.

At the end of the whole event, DISM participants especially the students from year 2 who were in such tournament for the very first time, felt very tired but at the same time really excited. When asked if they would like to take part in similar competition again, the juniors did not hesitate for a second in replying: "Absolutely, without a doubt!"

The winning team with Game Masters Mr Julian Ho and Mr Christophe Low

Minister of State for Defence and Educaion Mr Lawrence Wong attended the award presentation ceremony as the Guest of Honour. He conversed with members of DISM champion team Orion during the networking tea session afterwards. The team was also interviewed by a journalist (Mr Lim Zhao Wei) from the Straits Times. More details can be found at the SP Buzz coverage at: http://spbuzz.sp.edu.sg/blog/2012/06/11/students-tackle-cyber-defence-at-camp/ .

Good job guys! Keep it up!

We look forward to see DISM students bring back more trophies in the days to come.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

First day of the CDDC Competition

The Cyber Defenders Discovery Camp kicked off with a pre-camp briefing on 28 May 2012, where participants were briefed on the details of the camp and competition. Organised by DSTA (Defence Science & Technology Agency), this inaugural camp which lasts from 4th June to 7th June aims to develop the brightest young talents in cyber defence.

Open to all full-time students in local junior colleges (JC), Integrated Programme (IP) Year 5 and 6, local polytechnics and universities, the camp take participants through an exhilarating four-day journey where they learn the techniques in cyber defence before pitting their skills against one another in a competition.

[Above text extracted from DSTA website]


DISM has sent in 3 teams made of year 2 and 3 students into the IHL (polytechnic and university) category. After the first two days of training, which our students were able to handle with ease thanks to the solid foundations built in the DISM course, the competition kicked start.



After one entire day of intensive and exciting action, our teams which were named Orion, Lynx and Octans managed to grab two seats of the top three ranking. There will still be half a day more and just as the old saying goes: "It ain't over till the fat lady sings", let us wish good luck to our DISM representatives and hope they can keep up their good job!

More photos and details will be brought to you at a later time.