C2C 2018

I took part in the C2C qualifiers, and finished in 32nd place. Unfortunately due to problems during the qualifier the 2018 event was cancelled. This was a shame, as I enjoyed the qualifier, and a lot of people were looking forward to the main event. I hope to try to qualify for the 2019 event.

I have included the email I received here.

Dear James,

Thank you for your enthusiasm for the Cambridge2Cambridge Cybersecurity Challenge and your patience in awaiting the results. When we set out in 2015 to create an international cyber competition, our goal was to promote greater collaboration among countries and provide skills training for you, the next generation of cyber defenders. In addition to meeting those goals, we’ve enjoyed meeting and working with all of you. It has been our sincere pleasure to connect with you over the last three years.

Unfortunately, however, the results of the recent C2C qualifier have been compromised. The qualifying round has always been an individual competition. Sharing answers or requesting public help is unacceptable because we use the results of the qualifier to build balanced teams at the live event. This year, we discovered clear instances of participants operating outside of the bounds. As a result of the actions of these individuals, the veracity of the results cannot be guaranteed. Consequently, we are unable to use the qualifier to form teams and move forward with the live event in the summer of 2018. We are deeply disappointed by these results because we know so many of you made an honest attempt at the qualifier and certainly earned a spot in the live event.

As organizers, we’ve considered a number of options to fairly move forward with C2C 2018. After reviewing the options, we’ve made the tough decision to postpone C2C until 2019. There is simply no time to run another qualifier and allow time for travel visas and proper travel planning. Pushing the event to 2019 will allow us to run a new qualifying round and ensure significant time for all qualifying students to obtain travel arrangements for the live event. All students registered with a login for the C2C 2018 qualifier will be eligible to compete in the C2C 2019 qualifier regardless of graduation dates.

Considerable effort, planning and fundraising goes in to producing an event like this and we are truly disappointed we will not be able to host C2C this year.

Sincerely,

Dr. Howard Shrobe & Professor Frank Stajano MIT CSAIL / University of Cambridge

I have included the data from the scoreboard below, although as the data was optional not all competitors provided it.