NZ Cyber Security Challenge Simulates Drone Attacks
Around 400 aspiring cyber-crime fighters will attempt to infiltrate a horde of killer drones, manufactured by a criminal group.
It's part of this year's New Zealand Cyber Security Challenge, with high school pupils, university students and industry workers battling it out to be crowned the country's drone hacking hero.
Drones are a scary threat to cyber security, thinks Dr Ryan Ko, who set up NZ's first Master of Cyber Security degree at the University of Waikato and shooting the killer contraptions down isn't the answer. Instead, contestants have to find the source, or the mother ship, and use coding to emulate it.
"They call it the man in the middle attack," Ko, who helps to organise the challenge, said. "The race is on for researchers to create new technology that can allow and power people to stop incoming drones.
"The challenge now is criminals are more advanced and more creative than the people protecting them."
The top 150 cyber-crime fighters will compete in the final three challenges, with the winner scoring NZ$2550.
This year, 12-year-old Ashton Warner's taking part. He's been brought along by his 18-year-old brother, Logan Warner, who's attending his third year at Waikato. Drone hacking is new to both of them, but Ashton is already familiar with about five different web codes. The Auckland-based brothers hope to go into the cyber security business one day. "The challenges get harder every year," Logan said.
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