Federation TAFE students are learning how to become accomplished computer hackers and use their power for good so they can make the cyber world a safer place.
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Teams of cyber security students recently took part in an international hacking competition, finishing among the top seven per cent of teams worldwide.
Federation TAFE cyber security teacher Dr Adam Bignold said the Downunder Catch the Flag competition was a valuable training tool for the next generation of cyber security experts.
"Cyber security is the defence and protection of the network and hacking is about trying to break into it," Dr Bignold said.
"There's an industry within cyber security called penetration testing where companies hire hackers to break into their company to try to find weaknesses in their systems ... and that's what a lot of students come here to learn."
While hacking skills could be used for "nefarious means", Dr Bignold said the course was focussed on ethical hacking - or hacking into companies with their consent.
"As part of that defence we need to learn how criminals do it so we can identify what it looks like after the fact and how they could get in, so we can prevent it," he said.
As part of the 48-hour Downunder CTF, teams had to complete a list of challenges, earning a "flag" for each success which is redeemed for points in the competition.
Dr Bignold said challenges included blockchain hacking, breaking into someone's cryptocurrency wallet or tracing transactions, breaking passwords and encryption using cryptography, open source intelligence using publicly accessible information to track people, web hacking into websites and computers, and reverse engineering to work out how to get into files or what virus has infected a computer.
"These Capture the Flag tournaments are set up with challenges that align with what is happening in industry so we can practice," he said.
The competition drew more than 2100 teams from around the world including professional organisations, hackers and hobbyists.
Federation's all-female team won their category and a FedTAFE team competing against 77 other tertiary schools finished ninth. Overall the teams ranked 140th out of the 2100 participating teams.
Dr Bignold said the number of women studying cyber security at FedTAFE had more than doubled this year but numbers were still small.
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"We have doubled our percentage of females in cyber security this year from 7 per cent to 17 per cent and part of that has come from more initiatives in secondary school outreach - part of that has come from more marketing and support from our side.
"The demand for cyber security is outpacing enrolment at the moment and that's a big reason why the Victorian government has made Certificate IV in Cyber Security free for all students.
"We have a unique problem where we have students drop out of our cyber security (course) because they are getting jobs in the industry. Industry is taking them without a full qualification because of how much in demand they are."
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