BostInno
How MIT & Cambridge University Students Pooled Their Brainpower for Cybersecurity
By: Olivia Vanni
Last year, President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that MIT and Cambridge University in the U.K. would be joining forces for the good of global cybersecurity. The initial hackathon proposal was to pin the two schools against one another and have them duke it out to establish themselves as the top Cambridge. However, it was ultimately decided that the two world-renowned institutions should pool their brainpower, so the event was changed into a collaborative competition called Cambridge2Cambridge and it took place this past weekend.
Students from Cambridge University came across the pond to participate in the 24-hour hackathon at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Teams were assembled with a mixture of students from each school, and they participated in a customary “Capture the Flag” hacking game, in addition to other contests where they had to show their lock-picking, code-breaking and password-cracking skills.
At the end of the 24-hours, the teams who showed the most hacking prowess received money from Microsoft. Julian Fuchs, a student at MIT, received $5,000 and the title of "Top Hacker", meanwhile the "Top Hacking Team" prize of $15,000 was given to Fuchs, fellow MIT student Cheng Chen, as well as Cambridge University students Alex Dalgleish and Gabor Szarka.
It wasn’t about the money, though. Cybersecurity is a growing concern that greatly impacts the world, and Cambridge2Cambridge was a means of bringing the issue to light while inspiring talented students to become involved in protecting systems and the data they encompass.
Daniela Rus, director of MIT CSAIL, explained:
We hold security very near and dear to everything we do...[Cambridge2Cambridge] is a one-of-a-kind event and we would really like to encourage all the young people to consider seriously the implications and all of the different ways in which systems can be hacked. It’s really sobering to think that today, anybody with the right skills and knowledge can take big systems down from the comforts of their own couch. So as part of Cybersecurity at CSAIL, we recognize that cybersecurity is important across many, many different industry sectors. Last year alone, there was an investment of over $15 million to cope with the after-effects of hacking attacks. At CSAIL, we really believe that cybersecurity should be considered in a wholesome way and we’re aiming to guarantee security to build systems that are secure by default rather than by patchwork.
MIT, Cambridge University and all of the event’s corporate sponsors were hoping that by having students join together and learn about cybersecurity during the hands-on hackathon, it would prime them to pursue a line of work in this field. Ultimately, it was about increasing awareness while getting the next generation of cybersecurity talent ready for action.
