Cybersec 42

In recent years, cybersecurity has become a major cornerstone for businesses. Data is today's gold and protecting it is an essential part of a project. In 2021, there were an average of 40,000 attacks per day in Spain alone. Let us introduce ourselves. We are David Puente, Juan Rodríguez, Antonio Costal and David Rodríguez, students at 42 Madrid and the organisers of the cyber security association on campus. We have spent the last year promoting activities and events related to computer security. As a result of the proposal set up by Telefónica Tech's cybersecurity experts, David García, Álvaro Núñez-Romero and Sergio de Los Santos, the CTF "Stairway to hell" was held. This was a 48-hour event in which students from the campuses in Malaga, Barcelona, Urduliz (Vizcaya) and Madrid competed to solve the greatest number of challenges in order to reach the podium. A CTF (Capture The Flag) is a computer challenge in which, individually or in teams, students try to solve a series of tests, each one of a certain difficulty and different knowledge. The origins Once we finished deciding on the structure and testing, we started with the implementation. This has been the longest phase of the project and the one where we took on almost all the weight ourselves from the campus. The infrastructure behind the event was based on Cloud Computing, with a dedicated server capable of virtualising the dozens of machines that made up the challenge. We also developed a great work of setting: the CTF told a story with each challenge, and all of them were combined with a certain aesthetic, winks to the hacker culture and geek references. Making it happen We called it "Stairway to Hell", inspired by the theme of Dante's underworld. There were different tests, covering many of the branches of cybersecurity. There were tests on reverse engineering, steganography, exploitation, cryptography, web and defence. These were set around the deadly sins and other mythological references. As the date approached, the students' interest was clear. Cybersecurity events tend to generate a high level of interest among students at 42, and this one in particular was overwhelmingly well received. More than 48 hours It was carnival time, and the campus had a very festive atmosphere. Many people had also prepared well and had already brought supplies to spend the whole weekend, everything was ready to start. The starting signal was given by Sergio de los Santos at 18:00. We explained the dynamics, the rules of the campus and finally introduced the theme with a small performance. There was no turning back and we were hoping that all the hard work of the previous months would lead to an exciting challenge. Our fellow students were hard at work throughout the event. To be honest, although they had a solid background in computer science, most of them had no experience in cybersecurity. However, the interest and eagerness to learn drove the participants to work tirelessly to advance in the tests, in a fierce battle that lasted until the very last minute. Looking towards the future After several months of work, this project has become a fundamental part of our training at 42 and, above all, a way of giving back to the campus part of everything it has given us. In the short term, we are creating various workshops related to what we have learnt at the CTF, together with other content for the 42 course. In addition, we have the ambition to create a larger association that will encompass all the campuses in Spain, expanding the methodology to the five campuses that will make up 42 in our country.