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A big week of cyber activities

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

October 2020

For a second year running, AustCyber - The Australian Cyber Security Growth Network, partnered with the Australian Federal Police’s (AFP) National Missing Persons Coordination Centre and Canadian-based not-for-profit Trace Labs, to convene a missing persons capture the flag event during Australian Cyber Week.  

  • Joseph Banks Secondary College hosted the National Missing Persons Hackathon for 2020. 
  • Sixteen North Metropolitan TAFE (NMTAFE) Advanced Diploma and Certificate IV Cyber Security students competed with cyber professionals, budding hobbyists and university graduates around Australia to help solve up to 12 actual missing persons cases through the AFP. 
  • Out of 160 teams Australia wide, our students Sutapa Supta, Cameron Silvia, Ben Silvia and Matthew Clancy came first in WA and tenth nationwide. 

Hackathon gathers ethical hackers and investigators using online investigative techniques to find new leads on 12 real missing persons cases in Australia. Contestants use their cyber skills to gather open source intelligence (OSINT) on long-term and current missing persons using only information that is publicly available on the internet. The goal of this is to generate new leads on cases that can aid the relevant Australian policing jurisdictions in their investigations. 

"WA AustCyber Innovation Hub have sponsored our students for the last two years and have been wonderful supporters of NMTAFE as we delved into the cyber security education space. They sponsored and supported our involvement in the first ever Australian Black Hat Asia Hacksmith event, which was based at our Joondalup campus, with one of our student groups becoming joint winners,” Head of Program for Information Technology, Alan Johns said. 

Alan Johns and Daniel Paris volunteered their time on the day to help mentor the participants. Two Certificate IV in Cyber Security students were also guest judges for a capture the flag event with school students from Joseph Banks Secondary, which provided them with great real-world experience. 

In the lead up to Cyber Week (26 – 30 October), Managing Director Michelle Hoad joined a group of inspiring women at the Women in Leadership - Digital Economy event.  NMTAFE also supported and attended many events during Cyber Week, including attending the WA State of Cyber lunch launch and participating in a webinar series called ‘Hackademia’, where audiences could hear from lecturers talking about the pathways and skills available to enter the industry.  

Throughout the week, our cyber security students were involved in the CyberCheckMe program initiative along with ECU. As a founding partner of the program, NMTAFE students get to provide advice to general public and small business about how to defend themselves online. We also attended the City of Joondalup’s ‘Lunch in the City’ where local cyber security experts shared tips and advice on how small businesses can protect themselves and their customers from cyber threats.  

On the last day of Cyber Week our Certificate IV in Cyber Security students participated in a Shark Tank, set up by lecturers Stephen Oakley and Karl Weyrich, where they pitched business solutions to industry partners for some real-world, hands-on experience.  

Thank you to WA AustCyber Innovation Hub and all those involved for making this another successful Cyber Week.  

Find out more about our cyber security courses.