By hacking a website in a very short period of time, a team of Indian Institute of Technology Indore stood first in India and eighth globally in a cyber security competition and awareness event, CSAW, organised by New York University for cyber security recently.

In second place in the country was secured by IITA Roorkee’s team. It was ranked 14th worldwide. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Amritapuri’s team stood third in Indian and 16th worldwide.

“ByteBandits, the team of cyber security enthusiasts comprising Vishnunarayan K I, Mrigank Krishan, Vaibhav Anand and Sarthak Jain made their institute proud,” said IIT Indore PRO Sunil Kumar.

This is the second consecutive time students of IIT Indore secured the first position in India. Last year, they were ranked first in India and 9th globally and in 2018 they secured second position in India and 16th globally.

CSAW is one of the oldest and biggest cyber security competition and awareness event held globally. This competition requires players to integrate concepts, develop skills, and learn to hack.

It was a 36 hour long event, which was held on November 7 and November 8, saw competition among 52 qualified teams from worldwide. “Challenges mimicked real-world scenarios modelling various computer security problems,” Kumar said.

Teams have to demonstrate a profound understanding of the roles and ramifications of cyber security in these situations. Topics include Pwnable, RE, Web, Crypto, Forensics, etc.

CSAW started as a contest for New York University Tandon School of Engineering students nearly two decades ago and has since grown to include simultaneous final competitions at schools in France, India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Mexico.