The "Capture the Flag Challenge 2020" Award Presentation Ceremony - Recognises Cyber Security Future Talents

(Hong Kong, 13 November 2020) The first “Hong Kong Cyber Security New Generation Capture the Flag Challenge 2020”, jointly organised by the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) and its Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre (HKCERT), held its award presentation ceremony today, recognising the outstanding efforts of students from local secondary schools and tertiary institutions in acquiring cyber security knowledge through leveraging creative thinking for problem solving.

Mr Jason Pun, Assistant Government Chief Information Officer (Cyber Security & Digital Identity), and Ms Cecilia Wong, Curriculum Development Officer (IT in Education) of Education Bureau of the HKSAR Government, presented the awards to the winners, accompanied by Mr Edmond Lai, Chief Digital Officer of HKPC, at the ceremony at HKPC.

This team competition features two categories - Secondary Schools and Tertiary Institutions; each with gold, silver and bronze awards. With no entry limit for each school, the secondary school which enter the most participating teams will receive the “Most Supportive School Award”. Teams from Carmel Secondary School and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology won the gold awards in the Secondary School and Tertiary Institution categories respectively, while Immaculate Heart of Mary College won the “Most Supportive School Award”. (Please see the appendix for detailed award list)

Mr Edmond Lai, Chief Digital Officer of HKPC said, “HKPC and HKCERT organise the capture the flag challenge for the first time, aiming to enhance the cyber security awareness of young people and nurture more IT talents. On top of being a team spirit building exercise, the participating students can also acquire cyber security knowledge of cryptography, programming concept and forensics. The winning teams can attend a cyber security training programme for free, enabling them to lay the foundation for pursuing further learning on relevant areas.”

The competition received overwhelming responses from 37 secondary schools plus 19 tertiary institutions, which sent 156 teams comprised of nearly 540 students in total. The competition was conducted in Jeopardy-style from 6 to 8 November, will participating teams attempting to solve over 40 questions within 48 hours by searching, researching, using different tools and programming, in order to gain points.  As the score for solving each question would decline with more and more teams solving the same question successfully, the competition became fierce and thus prompted the teams to challenge more difficult questions. 

In the webinar that followed, security experts introduced the cyber security trend during the post-pandemic era, the best practises for preventing cyberattacks from difference perspectives as well as career planning for cyber security industry. 

- Ends -

Mr Jason Pun, Assistant Government Chief Information Officer (Cyber Security & Digital Identity) (front row, second from right); Ms Cecilia Wong, Curriculum Development Officer (IT in Education) of Education Bureau of the HKSAR Government (front row, second from left); Mr Edmond Lai, Chief Digital Officer of HKPC (front row, first from right); and Mr Alex Chan, Head of HKCERT (front row, first from left) pose for a photo with representatives of the co-organisers at the award presentation ceremony.

Award presenting guests, representatives of the co-organisers and sponsors of the “Hong Kong Cyber Security New Generation Capture the Flag Challenge 2020” pose a photo with the award-winning students.