“It's amazing to host a Capture the Flag for the first time"

Capture the Flags or CTFs are cyber security competitions with a goal to reverse engineer, decrypt and hack into computer systems to capture flags and win points for your team. Prestigious events include the DEFCON CTF in Las Vegas (referencing the U.S. Armed Forces defense readiness condition), considered to be the hacker Olympics and the China based OCTF, organized by Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University and the Chinese tech company, Tencent.

Now, for the first time EPFL will host the LakeCTF competition, showcasing the university and the Lake Geneva region. “We’re excited about the event as we didn’t expect all of the big teams to play! The fact that they are coming to Lausanne shows that we have a good international profile and they want to join us in this challenge,” explains Marc Egli, a student in the School of Computer and Communication Sciences (IC) and president of the Polygl0ts.

EPFL’s Capture the Flag Team Polygl0ts originated in Professor Mathias Payer’s HexHive Laboratory in 2018 as a way for students to playfully learn about all aspects of cyber security. “By playing, students analyse the newest types of security threats, figure out how to assess them, and practice how to mitigate such issues. In addition to being entertaining, students learn skills ready to be used in practice," says Payer. The team now counts students from across the IC School.

As the organizers, Team Polygl0ts won’t be competing in the LakeCTF event but setting the challenges, creating a different kind of pressure. Many of the team have had some sleepless nights recently devising a challenge worthy of the competitors.

“It’s exciting to be a host because you see people trying to solve your challenge and it’s interesting to have the perspective from the other side of the fence. On the other hand, one of the worst things that can happen is if the challenges are either unsolvable or teams have to guess random things. You do everything you can to avoid those problems. We brainstorm, come up with some ideas and then have them sense-checked and tested by other members of the team. It’s an iterative process of refining the challenge to make it a great quality one. And it really is about quality over quantity, that’s how to attract good teams to participate,” reflects Egli.

This Competition is being held to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the School of Computer and Communication Sciences and whilst cyber security fun is important, IC Head of Communications, Deirdre Rochat, leading the event’s organization, says there’s a bigger objective, “The digital world has transformed the way we live and work and with this transformation our school has grown exponentially in the past two decades. With revolutions underway in fields like quantum computing and data privacy, this competition shows that EPFL is on the global cyber security map.”

With three days to go until the big event Team Polygl0ts is ready to hit go! “Each time we attend an event we are the EPFL team and we are ambassadors for EPFL. It’s a big deal to now be hosting the LakeCTF and it’s our first opportunity to show how great we can make it!” concludes Egli.

10 competing teams & their universities/company

ASIS, Sharif University of Technology

cheriPi, University of Cambridge

DiceGang, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Cornell University, University of California, Berkeley, OtterSec

flagbot, ETH Zürich, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

NUS Greyhats, National University of Singapore

pwnthem0le, Politecnico di Torino

RoyalRoppers, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge

Social Engineering Experts, Faculty of Computer and Artificial intelligence Benha University, Huntress

Super guesser, Contentsquare, Yogosha

utTSSSMnkmmfdBA, University of Applied Science - St. Pölten, Hanoi University, Boston University, ENSIBS, ESIEA