A cybersecurity competition final, HackKaradeniz, kicked off within the scope of Teknofest Black Sea, the new edition of Türkiye’s largest technology and aviation event that was held in northern Zonguldak province between Aug. 13-14.
The competition was organized by the Presidency's Digital Transformation Office, with the support of the Western Black Sea Development Agency and the Cyber Homeland (Siber Vatan) project team.
Some 1,515 competitors that formed 380 teams from 29 different countries applied for this year’s competition, where the application process was initially held between March 15 to June 26.
Subsequently, a pre-selection stage was held as an online test format and then the semi-finals took place as a 24-hour online capture the flag competition (CTF) – a special kind of information security competition.
The participants, consisting of 194 teams and 609 attendees from eight countries demonstrated their competencies in different areas of cybersecurity as part of the semi-finals. As a result, some 38 competitors in 10 teams from four different countries qualified to compete in the final stage, which included breathtaking action over the weekend.
The HackKaradeniz competition final took place in a unique format and realistic scenario, which was a first in Turkey, prepared by the cybersecurity experts of the Digital Transformation Office and the contributing agency and teams.
The scenario takes its subject from real-world developments, but it involved the finalists collaborating with government agencies to detect a fictional cyberattack, eliminate the effects of the attack, and assist the capturing of the attackers.
The fictional scenario draws a picture in which Türkiye's energy-related works in the western Black Sea region were targeted by cyber attackers. With the information obtained from international intelligence sources as part of the scenario, the attackers were said to be preparing attacks to create chaos in the region, and they were planning attacks to be carried out in cooperation with some local hacker groups, as well as infiltrating public institutions.
The first stage of the finals was held in bug bounty format. Within a certain scenario, the competitors collected points by reporting the security breaches they detected on pre-determined digital platforms.
Within the scope of the Bug Bounty stage, YaaniMail offered by Turkish telecommunications giant Türkcell, Coslat Firewall developed by northwestern Bursa-based BG-Tek and the infrastructure of BugBounter, a local bug bounty platform, were examined by the competitors and the security breaches were reported to the relevant companies.
At the end of the first day, the teams ranked in the top five qualified to compete on the second day.
The top five teams, which proved their high-level technical competencies, deepened their research on the second day with the primary goal of neutralizing the attacks by revealing the plans of the attackers. In this process, an attack on a fictional institution called "Western Black Sea Energy Research Institute" was detected in cooperation with law enforcement, and attempts to attack Turkey's natural gas research studies were prevented.
After this stage, the competitors, who cooperated with security units to catch the attackers within the scope of the fictional scenario, participated in a breathtaking operation.
The competitors, who took action from the historical places of Zonguldak province to the lighthouse with coast guard boats, reached the port of Zonguldak with the cyber police accompanying them.
Industry and Technology Ministry Mustafa Varank and Ali Taha Koç, head of the Digital Transformation Office, welcomed the competitors there, as the "attackers" within the fictional scenario.
The top three teams ranked in the competition will participate in the Teknofest Black Sea event, which will run through Aug. 30 to Sept. 4 in Samsun province.
The teams are to receive their awards as part of the event, while also sharing their experiences of the competition with Teknofest participants.