The KMA.lastdance team from the Vietnam Academy of Cryptography Techniques in Hanoi won the overall standings of the Capture The Flag competition.

Nguyen Phi Lan, Partner, Assurance Services Leader, PwC Vietnam awarded the prize to KMA.lastdance team from Vietnam Academy of Cryptography Techniques - the Hack A Day 2023 winning team. Photo: PwC

Hack A Day 2023 - Securing AI, an international CTF competition for students across Vietnam, saw 26 teams from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City compete in six hacking challenges including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud, Red Team and Blue Team, Threat Intelligence and Incident Response, Web, and Binary & Reverse Engineering. During the competition, students had the opportunity to showcase their skills by researching, identifying, and executing strategic attacks to capture as many flags as possible.

Nguyen Chi Quang, leader of the KMA.lastdance team, said: "We have learned and gained a lot of valuable experience through this competition, especially from challenges that none of us have faced before, such as Red Team, Cloud, or AI. These are new, highly differentiated categories of hacking that, in my experience, have only been seen in the PwC CTF competition so far".

He hopes to see more competitions like this, allowing him to develop his cybersecurity skills and connect with other talented peers.

The winning team will receive attractive internship opportunities at PwC Vietnam, which professionally sponsored the annual Hack A Day.

Xavier Potier, Partner, Risk Assurance Services Leader, PwC Vietnam, said that artificial intelligence is changing the game of application of technologies and cybersecurity with potential chances and emerging challenges.

“With our Hack A Day 2023 event, we hope to provide a proper playground and learning environment for future talents in Vietnam to engage with AI models and tools and showcase their cybersecurity skills. Furthermore, participants also get networking opportunities with their talented peers to self-assess their skills and knowledge,” he said.

“We believe that it is essential to help young Vietnamese enhance their skills to deal with the rapidly changing tech landscape as they are the main forces driving the future of cybersecurity. By providing learning opportunities and a kick-start for their career, we hope to support young tech aspirants to grow and thrive in cybersecurity.”