NCL Technology Updates

GreyHats CTF 2024 , a Capture The Flag competition hosted jointly by NUS GreyHats and Division Zero (Div0) , and supported by the National Cybersecurity R&D Laboratory (NCL) , took place on July 27th and 28th, 2024, at the School of Computing, National University of Singapore (NUS). Over 80 participants from the top 20 teams of the GreyHats online qualifier competed in the onsite finals. Approximately 1,713 participants across 776 teams (549 international teams & 227 local teams) were participated in the qualifier. The CTF featured challenges from various categories, including Web Exploitation, Binary Exploitation, Reverse Engineering, Blockchain, Cryptography, and Miscellaneous. This year, GreyHats also hosted a summit on August 10th, 2024, at the School of Computing, NUS. The event featured talks and workshops on cybersecurity, offered students the opportunity to engage with our sponsors to explore opportunities, and the summit concluded with the CTF prize presenta

The National Cybersecurity R&D Laboratory (NCL) was in Estonia from April 22 to 26 2024 to participate in Locked Shield 2024, the world’s most advanced live-fire cyber defense exercise hosted by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (CCDCOE) . Over 4000 experts from more than 40 nations participated in Locked Shield 2024 , training to protect the infrastructure of a fictional nation in a simulated environment. As part of the DFIR development team, NCL developed a set of evidence and CTF questions based on NCL's RAIL SYSTEM Cyber Range . NCL would like to thank NATO CCDCOE for giving us the opportunity to participate in Locked Shield 2024. All the participants confronted a series of challenges that replicate the complexity of real-world cyber defense, including critical thinking, strategic decision-making, legal considerations, crisis communication, and strategic planning, all aimed at bolstering their cyber defense capabilities. The exercise aim

Over 500 youths participated in the Advanced Youth Cyber Exploration Programme (A.YCEP) X HackBash 2024 in March, with 180 youths attending an on-site cybersecurity training bootcamp. Participants were trained in foundational cybersecurity topics like Steganography, Cryptography, and OSINT, and were also provided with information on cybersecurity career opportunities. The top 80 students then competed in teams of four in the final Capture-The-Flag competition. The final CTF held on March 16, 2024, at the ASEAN-Singapore Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence (ASCCE) in Singapore! The winning teams are Team 6 (First Place), Team 9 (Second Place) and Team 16 (Third Place).The top team walking away with a grand prize of SGD 800 . Congratulations to all the winners and participants. CSA co-organised the event with NUS Greyhats, Bakkhos Labs, Horangi Cyber Security - a Bitdefender company and the National Cybersecurity R&D Lab (NCL).

The National Cybersecurity R&D Lab (NCL) supported the STEAM AHEAD Global Finals 2023 (7-11 Dec 2023), organized by the Singapore International Mastery Contests Centre (SIMCC) in Bali, Indonesia. The event aimed to provide students with international exposure and education in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM). The STEAM AHEAD Global Finals 2023 featured three categories, and NCL co-organized the “International Junior Cybersecurity Olympiad 2023 CTF competition”, collaborating with the NUS Centre for Nurturing Computer Excellence. Notably, Professor Chang Ee Chien and Liu Yuancheng from NCL were honored to serve as judges for the International Junior Cybersecurity Olympiad 2023 CTF competition. Prior to the Bali event, NCL conducted four cybersecurity training sessions and a pre-training session before the competition. These sessions covered a wide range of concepts, incorporating Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs) presented in the form

The National Cybersecurity R&D Laboratory (NCL) participated in Crossed Swords 2023, which took place in Estonia from December 11 to 14, 2023. Crossed Swords 23 (XS23) is an exercise designed to train the cyber specialists conduct successfully full-spectrum offensive cyber operations. More than 20 countries, including NATO and non-NATO member states, participated in Crossed Swords 2023. NATO CCDCOE has been organizing the exercise since 2016 and the first red teaming workshop was conducted in 2014. Starting in 2019, the exercise included a designated cyber command element in its training. CCDCOE-led exercises and research provide its member nations with a testbed for experimentation in cyber operations. Crossed Swords tests the capabilities and practices skills that participants would need when planning and executing a full-spectrum cyber operations, especially with elements from the other domains. The training audience includes not only cyber operators, but also digital foren

National Cybersecurity R&D Lab (NCL) had the opportunity to support Critical Infrastructure Defence Exercise (CIDeX) 2023 from 22nd November to 24th November 2023 held at the School of Computing, National University Singapore (NUS). The event involves over 200 participants coming from DIS, CSA and 24 other national agencies across six Critical Information Infrastructure (CII) Sectors. Mr. Heng Chee How, the Senior Minister of State for Defence, and Dr. Janil Puthucheary, the Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information and Health, attended the Critical Infrastructure Defence Exercise (CIDeX) 2023 on 24th of November 2023. The event focuses on training and strengthening Whole-Of-Government (WoG) cyber capabilities to detect and tackle cyber security threats to Information Technology (IT) and OT networks that control the operations of critical infrastructure. NCL would like to express gratitude to MINDEF and Cybersecurity Agency of Singapore (CSA) for prov