Oxford team wins Cyber 9/12 London competition
Posted: 25th February 2020
Cyber 9/12 is a cyber policy competition for students across the globe, who compete to develop national security policy recommendations which tackle a fictional cyber-incident. Students from Oxford have taken part in the competition before but this is the first year the Oxford team has done so well. Our ‘CyberSeals’ team reached the finals, and then won the competition!
Team member Matthew Rogers writes, ‘We were given a 40-page intelligence brief from multiple sources and month to write a situation assessment and decision brief, giving a 10-minute oral presentation to UK government experts who acted as judges. For the semi-finals we had to do the same, but this time a 20 page intelligence brief in just 13 hours from 5pm to 9am. In the competition finals we were given 20 minutes alone in a room with a 10-page intelligence brief, and then promptly presented a 10-minute brief, with a 15-minute Q&A on stage to all attendees. Through this competition we evaluate the threats different actions propose to the UK government, technological responses, and the multi-national, inter-agency, and government/industry connections that must be considered when responding to cyber attacks. This is especially when the attribution is unclear and situation only continues to escalate.’
The winning team: Manuel Hepfer (CDT in Cyber Security)
Alexis Ciambotti (MPhil Politics)
Yashovardhan Sharma (CDT in Cyber Security)
Matthew Rogers (CDT in Cyber Security)