This was the first Capture the Flag competition organized by xSTF (Extreme Security Task Force), linked to the MSc in Information Security at DCC-FCUP.
The xSTF (Extreme Security Task Force), the University of Porto’s academic cybersecurity group based at the Faculty of Sciences, recently organized the first large-scale online competition, upCTF. The result? More than 300 teams from around the world took part, competing over 48 hours.
The competition, part of the Capture the Flag (CTF) category, featured a set of challenges designed to test the knowledge and logical reasoning of each hacker/cybersecurity professional. In this case, upCTF included problems in areas such as forensics, cryptography, open-source intelligence, reverse engineering, software vulnerability exploitation, web application attacks, and other challenges developed by xSTF students.
The French team SleepyHollow secured first place, achieving a final score of 49,920 points. Second and third places were awarded to Portuguese teams from Porto and Aveiro. Additionally, the teams finishing in 4th and 5th place also received monetary prizes. In total, the prizes awarded to the winning teams exceeded €12,000.
Among the five sponsors of the event was Ethiack, a company founded by André Baptista, who holds a Master’s degree in Information Security from FCUP and was named the world’s best hacker in 2019. Caido, Hackviser, APISEC University, and Knight Squad Academy also supported the initiative.
About xSTF
xSTF (Extreme Security Task Force) was founded in 2015 at the Department of Computer Science of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto.
Currently, the team is led by Guilherme Coutinho, with institutional support and coordination provided by FCUP professor João Resende.
The team is composed of undergraduate and master’s students from the DCC, particularly from the MSc in Information Security. In addition to researching security vulnerabilities and organizing workshops and training sessions at the University, this FCUP group regularly participates in international Capture the Flag competitions.