Kudos to UGCC
In June 2021, the OAS announced their annual International CyberEx 2021 Competition. This year the competition was once again virtual due to Covid19.
“International CyberEx is an initiative of OAS (Organization of American States) and INCIBE (Spanish National Cybersecurity Institute) that seeks to strengthen the ability to respond to cyber incidents, as well as to improve collaboration and cooperation in this kind of incidents.”
Guyana first participated remotely in an activity of this nature by invitation from OAS/CICTE in December 2014 to the recently established Guyana National CIRT. The Colombian Cyber Emergency Response Team — colCERT, in cooperation with Intek De Colombia S.A, hosted the second “Regional Cyber Games” for the CIRTS and CERTS of Member States of the Organization of American States, as well as for Colombian local teams, on December 10, 2014 in Bogota, Colombia. Guyana’s then very new National CIRT, with Incident Handler Jason Plummer as Captain, supported by Bhojnarine Hemchand and Aneal Giddings (then at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), jumped at the opportunity to develop exposure to Capture the Flag cyber training exercises.
With the dynamic duo ‘Jason and Bhoj’ both out of Guyana now pursuing further studies in Canada, I had the pleasure this year of seeing four young Guyanese, nurtured by the University of Guyana’s Cyber Security Club, challenge themselves at the International CyberEx 2021 competition (June 30th,2021). Guyana came in 36th out of 82 countries.
What was interesting about this effort is that all members of the team nurtured their interests in Cybersecurity at the University of Guyana’s Cybersecurity Club (UGCC). Team Captain, Mr. Cloyd London, is a former President of the UGCC for the academic year (2018–2019). Teekae Jordan is a founding member of the UGCC in 2017 and served as Vice-President every year until he graduated in 2020. Jason Jacobs is the current President of the UGCC and Wayne Forde Jr is the current Vice-President of the club. This is the objective behind the University of Guyana clubs — to give opportunity to young talented students to hone and sharpen skills and develop knowledge in special interest areas.
Cloyd London, having learned that anyone can participate in the tournament from academia, public/private sector, National CSIRTs or NGOs, had difficulty finding colleagues who were willing to give the tournament a try.
Failing to find professionals who had the skills and interests in cybersecurity, he turned to his old college buddies and then the ‘Dream Team’ was formed: Cloyd London as Captain, Teekae Jordan, Wayne Forde Jr and Jason Jacobs as the penetration and forensics researchers.
On June 30th the OAS launched the tournament with 12 challenges, 10 of which were on digital forensics, one on exploitation and one on analysis. The tournament lasted for 8 hours and several countries under the OAS participated.
Guyana went into the tournament with high enthusiasm but only to realise they weren’t prepared for the kind of questions or tasks that were expected of them to execute, this being their first attempt at CyberEx. However, as Captain London explained, they quickly adjusted and strategised. They told themselves that they had to face 12 challenges and that they must be able to answer at least one challenge that is high on points and try to attempt the other challenges partially. The penetration tester on the team was current UGCC President, Jason Jacobs, who encouraged everyone to look at one of the difficult questions and put their best foot forward. They did and were able to gather 500 points and be within the 44 countries that were able to answer a challenge successfully out of 82 countries and Guyana finished the tournament ranked 36th space.
As Academic advisor to the UGCC, I am proud of the efforts of these young men. They have over the years invested hours of their personal time and personal funds studying and developing their knowledge and skills in an area where Guyana (and the rest of the world) is desperately short of skills. I encouraged them to enter the tournament knowing quite well that they would come face to face with what they did not know, a valuable learning experience in itself. Now, the team is energised to develop their knowledge in digital forensics.
While as a nation we have a far way to go in terms of Cybersecurity Awareness Building and skills development, the names mentioned in this blog are at the forefront of technical Cybersecurity Knowledge and skills in Guyana today. While the same set of skills can be used to hack into networks for criminal purposes, UGCC members have their interests squarely in the area of being ethical security practitioners, developing themselves to protect and defend networks.
It is notable that the tournament was won by an academic CERT from Argentina, CERTUNLP, the academic CSIRT of the National University of La Plata. Cloyd London, during his year as President UGCC, with my full support, tried valiantly to form an academic CSIRT at the University of Guyana. The institution, at that time, did not have the environment to support such innovative thinking. We need to do much more, as a nation, to support the development of local talent in Guyana especially in the area of Information Technology which while changing at a rapid pace is the core enabler of every aspect of society, from social networks to academic, private and public sector operations. As we have all seen with Covid19 and the need to move online with alacrity, we are all dependent on Information Technology today. Along with the opportunities, ICTs also bring threats and responding to both opportunities and cyber threats demands agility in management and IT Governance in all organisations today, including Government Agencies. The only thing that is stopping the young people of Guyana from developing their cybersecurity skills is the quality of training that we provide to them which is dependent upon the vision that we set for ourselves as a nation.
I am thankful to the OAS/CICTE, an organization that has over the years provided much technical assistance to Guyanese to develop Cybersecurity skills. This is not the first time that the OAS has provided opportunity for UGCC to learn more about Cybersecurity. The Club, under the leadership of Cloyd London, participated in the OAS Diplohack competition in Feb 2019 where they had opportunity to visit the OAS HQ and engage with the best young minds in the region working in cybersecurity governance. While the OAS is doing its part, our Government efforts in National Cybersecurity Governance needs better leadership and that can only come from more political participation.
Guyana has already seen the passion that young University of Guyana students have shown for robotics and STEM in general. We really must be more strategic as a nation in our support to developing human resources for the future development of the country. It is dreams that we must support. And dream teams. If we are out of touch with the heart beat of the youth, we will continue to lose them.
Ms. Sandra Khan is a current full-time Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Guyana and the Club Advisor for the Cybersecurity Club (2017 — present) and former Head Guyana National CIRT (2013–2016).
