VU Cyberthon, a cybersecurity tournament, has ended. It was a competition solving cybersecurity challenges and capturing flags. Approximately 1142 participants took part in this event. The organizers dedicated the first day for presentations, and the rest was dedicated to actual challenges. This article will share what I have learned and my progress in the tournament.

The First Day

Apart from a minor glitch where a live YouTube feed went down for a few minutes, the event was very professional. The official tournament webpage had all information for newcomers with rules explained, the event program, registration, and contact pages.

I was particularly interested in two presentations on the Lithuanian cyber security situation overview by Rytis Rainys and OSINT and Text Analytics: What is Hidden in Plain Sight by Tomas Krilavicius. Unfortunately, due to the shortage of time, these were my best picks for the day.

VU Cyberthon was my first official cybersecurity hackathon. As mentioned before, organizers were professionals, so they left some clues of what to expect from a previous competition.

Learning materials were as follows: presentation of Digital Forensics 2021, Nmap Tutorial to find Network Vulnerabilities, Linux for Ethical Hackers. So I spent some time learning it.

The Hackathon Itself

I started solving challenges as soon as it was published. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time for this tournament, so I focused my efforts on Digital Forensics. It was a new subject for me, so Digital Forensics 2021 helped. First, I installed recommended software: AccessData FTK Imager and Registry Viewer. Then, I started going through the system image organizers provided. I felt like a cop or some three-letter agency type, scouring through files, looking for clues.

I solved most challenges related to Digital Forensics. Questions were about a computer owner, his nickname, organization name, etc. Every correct answer gave a few points. The premise behind challenges was a criminal who didn’t want to disclose his name to the police, so as a good investigator, you had to find clues on his computer and deanonymize him.

Results and Learnings

The practical part of a tournament lasted 24 hours. I spent approximately 6 hours in total. There were 30+ challenges. I don’t remember how many challenges I did, but I was in 87th place from 1141 participants in the end. I was short of 2 challenges related to Digital Forensics. From a thematic perspective, I mainly focused on Digital Forensics.

I learned from a cybersecurity hackathon that puzzles and challenges motivate me. As a result, I get easily addicted to solving problems. So I also learned Digital Forensics.

Next time I need to allocate more time to the tournament. One all-nighter would be enough to finish all challenges.

I highly recommend joining these hackathons. They motivate, inspire, and ultimately, you learn something new. If you want to learn more about the tournament, here is a link to all lectures from the previous year.