Defenders of the Cyber World

Scholarships ! Exclusive to IT Courses in TP

2012-01-12T10:31:00.003+08:00

Cyber & Digital Security and Digital Forensics applicants are eligible to apply for exclusive scholarship offered by TP Informatics & IT School. Find out more from our website www-it.tp.edu.sg

Join us if you have decided to become a Cyber Defender or Cyber Investigator!

Paying IT Forward

2011-12-13T08:48:00.006+08:00

The Red Hat (Linux) courses are Free-Of-Charge to the freshmen participants, because the instructors (your seniors) received their training Free-Of-Charge from their seniors!
This is a tradition which we practise in Dip CDS, we called it “paying it forward”.
Yep! The kindness and goodness which we received (from upsteam), we would pass them along downstream to the younger ones.

It all started with the cohort of 2006, then to 2007 (the first photo), then to 2008 and 2009 (the second photo)!
Notice their awesome all-black and all-white Red Hat t-shirts?

Do you notice the boy in white, sitting at the front row (in the centre)? He is Koh Jun Xiang, he has gotten his Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE).
RHCE is much more difficult and is one level “higher” than RHCSA (or RHCT)!!!

Now, our student cohort of 2010 has a whopping 21 certified Red Hat professionals! And they have not graduated from TP yet!
The 2009 cohort had taught them, and they will teach you when you come on board!

My Intership @ INTERPOL France

2011-12-12T11:10:00.007+08:00

You might have already heard about the exciting news: Yep, the Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security students (and soon the Diploma in Digital Forensics too) continue to have the rare and rewarding internship experience at INTERPOL France!

Take a look at their precious moments (Hamzah & ZhongMin) @ INTERPOL HQ:

So, what is the internship experinece like? Read on as Teh Kaiwn, 3rd Year student from the diploma in CDS,shared his experience with us:

As it was my first time to Europe, I was eagerly looking forward to experiencing living in France. Therefore I felt really fortunate to be chosen for a 5 month attachment to INTERPOL in Lyon. When I first arrive in Lyon, the first thing that I took notice of was the temperature and humidity and was actually glad to be away from the weather in Singapore. A new adventure was about to begin.

Work at INTERPOL was not just fulfilling but also enriching as I get to meet and work with people from all around the world. My supervisor who is from Japan was very friendly and made sure that I felt at home in INTERPOL. I was also glad to be assigned an important project and not just any mundane office job. Much to my delight, the skills that I picked up while doing my Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security such as digital forensics and programming came in useful for the project thus I did not have to relearn everything from scratch.

Throughout my attachment at INTERPOL, I also took the time to travel around Lyon and look at the beautiful sceneries in France. One of my most memorable outings was a 2 Day trip to the Ardeche River in south central France. I went with a big group of interns from different countries and took part in camping, canoeing and tree climbing. It was a fun filled trip and I even got the opportunity to view the night sky of France that was clear enough to even spot the Milky Way, something that is almost impossible to do in Singapore.

I think that getting this opportunity to live in France away from the comforts of my home and family has strengthened me in many ways. Learning how to prepare meals for myself and living alone without my family has made me more independent. I believe this overseas internship experience is an all rounded one, for I gain not just work experiences, but also experience the culture and lifestyle of people in France. Now I can finally say with pride that I have friends from all over the world.

Playing cyber cop is part of diploma course

2011-10-29T01:03:00.002+08:00

Singapore to Groom IT Security Experts

2011-09-11T01:14:00.005+08:00

News on TV & Radio last night reported that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is enhancing its collaboration with various institutes of higher learning to prepare the next generation of IT security professionals. The Singapore Infocomm Technology Security Authority, (SITSA), an agency under the MHA, signed memorandum of understanding with the NUS, SMU and TP. The MOUs cover a wide spectrum of cooperation from development of courseware for IT security modules, to undertaking of joint research projects.

It was reported that TP is launching a Centre of Digital Security Investigations, which will provide a practical training ground for students to be trained in the areas of incident response, monitoring and artefact analysis.

For more information? Click here to visit the URL!!!

Year 2011/2012: AiSP Main Commitee and Members

2011-06-16T23:27:00.005+08:00

Cyber Arts of Penetration

2011-06-03T00:14:00.001+08:00

Greetings everyone, on 23^rd June 2011, AiSP has organised Cyber Arts of Penetration. The objective of this event was to increase our knowledge of BackTrack and giving us hands on experience. For the readers’ information, BackTrack is Linux-based penetration testing arsenal which aids security professionals to perform assessments in a purely native environment dedicated to hacking.

Figure 1 All participants are getting ready

Figure 1 shows that all the participants were eager to start the competition as they are interacting with their computer. In the same time, they were listening to the objectives and the tools that they had used during the exploit. In this competition, we learnt to use Metasploit Framework as a tool. Metasploit Framework is open source penetration testing solution as the actual development platform that used to create security test tools and exploit modules and can also be used as a penetration testing system.

Figure 2 Candid shot of our junior, Marcus while he was trying hard

Figure 3 Our junior, Jiahui who was trying to complete this last objective

Figure 4 Group photo of CAOP

Figure 5 Winner of the first prize: Marcus

At the end of the day, let us congratulate to our first prize winner, our junior, Marcus from Class C256. He managed to persevere throughout the whole competition. He took 41 minutes to complete all the challenging objectives. Last but not least, we would like to say a big thank you to all who attended CAOP. Without your present, the event will not be successful.

New Facebook Group

2011-05-20T15:39:00.000+08:00

Since Facebook is abolishing the older "Groups", we've migrated to the newer version of FB groups. Here is the new link. You can also click on the link above the navigation bar.

Catch up soon - I'll be uploading new photos from our "Get Together Day" during Diploma in Digital Forensics.

CDS & DFS Get Together Day 2011

2011-05-05T22:59:00.001+08:00

Greetings everyone, on ^5nd May 2011, we had our CDS & DFS Get Together Day 2011! It was organised by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) Student Chapter. To who may be wondering what is ISACA? ISACA is a professional body basically involved with system audit and control.

Figure 1 Socialising between our teachers and our freshmens

The bonding chemistry between CDS and DFS are growing as we had about 100 attendees who turned up in this event. Besides having barbecue during the event, we played a game called “Water Bombs”. This particular game brought even closer as it gave us the chance to mingle with one another. This event gave us the opportunity to bring CDS and DFS together as one. From the smiles from the attendees, we were able sensed the satisfaction of everyone and we do believe that everyone appreciated this event.

Figure 2 Water Bomb: The mechanism to bond

Figure 3 Not only chef, CDS students loves to cook too!

We would say that this event was a great success! The credit goes to the ISACA Student Chapter, staff advisors, student helpers and those who offered their generous assistance in making this event possible. Last but not least, we would like to say a big thank you to the attendees who came and made this event into a WOW factor!

AiSP Election Presidential and Vice-Presidential Election Day 2011

2011-05-04T10:22:00.001+08:00

On the 4^th of May 2011, the Association of Information Security Professionals (AiSP) student chapter of TP held its first ever open Presidential Election 2011. It was witnessed by fellow AiSP members and lecturer advisors as well as the whole CDS audience. To who may be wondering what is AiSP? AiSP is a professional body basically involved with promote, develop, technical competence, management expertise and interests of information security professionals.

Figure 1 The audience attentively listening to one of the candidate for the day

The junior AiSP members contested in positions for president and vice-president for the 2011/12 fiscal year. Each candidate delivered their convincing speeches in an attempt to win the hearts of the audience. This was followed by the voting process in which audience opted for their choice candidate on a special slip.

Figure 2 Audience actively discussing about the decisions made

At the end of the day, it was concluded that Alwinson Auyong from c256 would be the new President of AiSP TP Student Chapter. On a separate closed election for student interest group members, it was decided that Eugene Foo from c257 would take the role as the new Vice-President. Congratulations to Alwinson (Figure 3) and Eugene (Figure 4) for being the newly-elected President and Vice-President of AiSP!

Figure 3 Alwinson Auyong as the newly elected president of AiSP

Figure 4 Eugene Foo, the newly elected vice-president of AiSP

Figure 5 (Bottom row) The Seniors and Juniors (Upper row)

Always remember the men and woman in black who imparted their precious knowledge, skills and been so patience to us. They were the one, our seniors who made AiSP into great success where they sailed AiSP into a greater height. With their legacy, we will make AiSP to soar and not to make their hard works into waste.

AiSP Networking Night

2011-02-01T22:28:00.002+08:00

On the 29th of November 2010, there was a Association of Information Security Professionals (AiSP) networking night that took place at NUSS Suntec City Guild House.

The networking session allow the professionals to network with other information security professionals in a relaxing environment while enjoying the food and drinks.

Below are pictures taken together with Mr Gerard Tan, president of the Association of Information Security Professionals and Mr Cecil Su, Committee Member of the Association of Information Security Professionals along with the AiSP student chapter from Nanyang Polytechnic and Singapore Polytechnic.

(Click to enlarge)

Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security

2011-01-04T13:44:00.000+08:00

AIRRAID3 Competition

2010-12-23T22:29:00.004+08:00

Following the successful AIRRAID and AIRRAID2 IT-Security Tournament series by ThinkSECURE, the premier technical IT-Security Certification Authority in Asia, comes AIRRAID3 that took place on the 20th October 2010 in Singapore Polytechnic.

Cyber and Digital Security are proud to announce that our student won the second and third place in the tournament. Below are a interview with one of the member of the team Tprotocols that won the third place, Sayed Hamzah Alhabshe and some pictures.

(Q) – Question

(H) – Hamzah

(Q) How was the experience at the competition like?

(H) The competition allowed the contestants to gain lots of exposure and at the same time, getting a feel of how to conduct espionage. We had also gain lots of experience from finding ways to hack into someone’s network and computer (e.g. cracking passwords). Overall the competition was enjoyable and we got to hone our skills as well.

(Q) What do you think is the factor that led your team to victory?

(H) Our team did lots of planning and research for the competition, and we also practice and hone our technical skills with our own server.

(Q) What are the strategies your team had used?

(H) Our team consists of individuals who have their own expertise (e.g. cracking password, exploiting software) and we split our job so that we can concentrate on what we are doing.

(Q) What are some of the improvement you think that could be made to help your team?

(H) We could had brought better equipment to the competition such as network card and usb network adapter and do more research prior to the competition.

(Q) How did your course Cyber & Digital Security help you in the competition? What are some of the example?

(H) Our module in ethical hacking provides us with a basis on general hacking and our networking modules help us to gain an idea what to look out for in a network system.

(Q) What advice could you give to our future representative participating in such competition?

(H) I would advise them to do background research on the competition and stock up on hardware equipment such as network card, at the same time learn lots of hacking concept(SQL injection) and hacking tools(Nmaps, Backtrack) and get familiar with them.

Digital Forensic Seminar

2010-10-29T21:41:00.002+08:00

Hi everyone!
Temasek Polytechnic School of Informatics & IT is proud to invite all of you
to the Digital Forensic Seminar!
Details are as follows:

Temasek Polytechnic School of Informatics & IT
Block 3, Level 5, Tampines Avenue 1, Singapore 529757
15 November 2010
3.00pm – 6.00pm

For more information about the seminar, please refer to the poster below

(Click to enlarge)

Please go to this link if you're interested to register for the seminar: http://dfs.eventbrite.com

AiSP-OSSIG-ISACA Joint Retreat

2010-10-29T21:25:00.004+08:00

On 19th of October 2010,

There was a joint retreat between ISACA and AiSP Student Chapters and the Open Source Student Interest Group held at Seoul Garden for its members. This is to commemorate their efforts for managing and organizing various events for the course and for Temasek Polytechnic.

Below is a photo taken during the retreat featuring a TP Dip CDS lecturer, Mr Chia (foremost of the picture in white polo) who is also in charge of AiSP and the student members from all 3 CCAs.

(Click to enlarge)

AIRRAID3 Competition

2010-10-25T11:16:00.002+08:00

Two of our CDS teams won 2nd and 3rd place in the AIRRAID3 competition which was held on 20 Oct 2010, at Singapore Polytechnic. AIRRAID3 is the third iteration of the AIRRAID competition – the first was held in 2005 in Singapore and the second was held in 2008 in Bangkok. The competition is organized by ThinkSECURE Pte Ltd and Singapore Polytechnic.

AIRRAID3 features a full-blown storyline-based integrated wireless, wired and application security tournament setup where teams of contenders and pretenders test their skills against a purpose-built, multi-segment, enterprise-class, wireless/wired network and web/application server infrastructure. Judges score the teams on the basis of time and difficulty. The faster the teams can conduct a successful penetration against their target infrastructure, the more points they score. If they can breach the perimeter, they face other tough challenges in trying to break into various distributed systems to retrieve information. Details of the competition are available here: Link.

ThinkSECURE Pte Ltd is the premier practical technical IT-Security Certification & Training Body in Asia. ThinkSECURE’s hands-on and practical training and exams address the fundamental question: "Who Trains The IT-Security Pros?" Unlike other IT-security certifications, ThinkSECURE's certifications use practical, hands-on, lab-based exams. This means that certification candidates must prove they have the practical skills and techniques in order to earn a ThinkSECURE certification, and guarantees employers that the person is indeed fully capable of applying knowledge and contributing to the employer from day one.

We had 3 teams consisting of 3 students each participating in AIRRAID3. Two of them won 2nd and 3rd placing and they are:
· 2nd Place – LIM CHER HUI, DAI ZHONG MIN and KOH JUN XIANG
· 3rd Place - SAYED HAMZAH B SAYED ALI A, MUHAMMAD NURUDDIN B MAZLAN and KOK MING HAO

Prizes:
· 2nd Place – Dlink DIR-685 Extreme-N Storage Router (one each for each registered team member) and USD 1500 total cash prize.
· 3rd Place – Dlink DIR-655 Xtreme-N Gigabit Router (one each for each registered team member) and USD 500 total cash prize.

Altogether, 14 teams from Singapore (polytechnics – TP – 3 teams, SP – 2 teams & NYP – 1 team, and private sectors), Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines participated. The winner is a team of IT security professionals from Thailand. Only the top 3 teams are awarded prizes. The winner was awarded a Dlink DIR-825 Xtreme-N Duo Band Gigabit Router and DNS-323 Network Storage Enclosure (one each for each registered team member) and USD 4000 total cash prize.

Photos will be uploaded later.

Security Exploit Workshop 27th September 2010

2010-10-11T20:16:00.016+08:00

On the 27 of September, the AiSPSC and the ISACASC jointly held a Security Exploit Workshop at the IBM lab for the freshmen. The number of turnouts was encouraging and they enjoyed the workshop.

Freshmen at the workshop, equipped with laptops, ready to start

The workshop covered several forms of security exploit. Namely we had the windows magnifier exploit which had been proven and demonstrated in secondary school outreach done by AiSPSC, the BruteSSH exploit and the VNC exploit. A presenter from ISACA, Teh Kaiwen, even managed to complete some of the renowned hACME games online with the freshmen.

Some of the presenters and helpers at the workshop (Above, Teh Kaiwen of ISACASC; Top, Brendon Koh and Sayed Hamzah from Dip CDS)

It was interesting to note that these exploits were done by student presenters from both clubs. To undertake such a program, it clearly showed the level of maturity of the clubs even though they were just newly formed.

Freshmen trying hands-on on the exploits

With such an enriching flow of program throughout the day, the freshmen returned home packed with some interesting knowledge that could come in useful in their pursue for knowledge whilst in the diploma.

Information Security Awareness & Diploma Outreach Programme at BGSS

2010-09-01T00:30:00.006+08:00

There was an Information Security Awareness & Diploma Outreach Programme at Bedok Green Secondary School on the 27th of August 2010.

The purpose of the talk was to raise Information Security Awareness among the secondary school students as well as to promote Temasek Polytechnic and the various courses offered at IIT School. There were 3 programme highlights which included the hacking demonstration done on Windows operating system by AiSPSC presenters Alwinson and Eugene, followed by a discussion session on how we could “harden” (strengthen the security of) our computer by AiSPSC president Neo Jie Xiang and finally a presentation by our very own lecturer, Mr Ho Hee Meng on Temasek Polytechnic and the various IIT school courses. Our course achievements were also highlighted along with the showcasing of a short video on our course.

The event was a huge success and we were very happy to receive positive feedback that the talk was useful and great. We would like to thank the lecturer and students involved, and Miss Sew Pui Huang for helping us to coordinate the event and of course, Bedok Green Secondary School for making the talk possible.

CDS Alumni

2010-08-28T11:19:00.005+08:00

Click on the Alumni to get detailed profile information on each of them.

Sunny Neo - Diploma Gold Medalist (Class of 2009)
Brandon Lum - Diploma Gold Medalist (Class of 2010)
Nicholas Foong - Diploma Silver Medalist (Class of 2010)

CDS Alumni: Nicholas Foong

2010-08-28T11:16:00.005+08:00

Nicholas Foong, Research Programmer par Excellence

Nicholas graduated from the Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security in 2010, achieving 18 distinctions and 7As in his subject modules. He was selected for an overseas attachment to the University of Wollongong (UOW). Here’s what Prof Willy Susilo from UOW mentioned about him:
“I am amazed how he is able to pick up the many ideas about information security at postgraduate level during his stay here. … He also learned … advanced knowledge in public key cryptography, which is not easy to understand even for PhD candidates.”

Nicholas has also applied for the prestigious NIS Scholarship.

CDS Alumni: Brandon Lum

2010-08-28T11:03:00.003+08:00

Brandon Lum Jia Jun, a Scholar, a Master Competitor and Mentor

Brandon graduated from the Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security in 2010, with a whopping 27 distinctions in his subject modules. He is awarded the iDA-IBM National Infocomm Scholarship (NIS), fully sponsoring him to pursue his studies at Carnegie Mellon University, USA. In just a single year alone, Brandon was instrumental as a mentor-competitor, and led his team mates to victory, in no less than 7 competitions and awards at the international and national levels!

• Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards (2009, international level, held in Australia) - won the APICTA Award for the Tertiary Category.
• SiTF 2009 Award (2009, national level) – won the Champion Team and Trophy (Tertiary Student Category).
• helloSecure@SG Security Software competition (2009, national level) – won the Champion Team.
• SPH Singapore IT Developers Award (2009, national level) – awarded Top IT Developers Award
• OpenJive Regional Challenge 2009 (regional level, South East Asia) – won the Champion Team, Sun Developer’s Choice Award and Elixir Market Potential Award
• OpenJive Singapore Challenge 2009 (2009, national level) – won the Champion Team and Sun Technology Award
• Symposium on Security for Asia Network (SYSCAN) 2009 Capture the Flag (CTF) Competition (international level) – won the Overall Champion Team and Best Attacking Team Award

CDS Alumni: Sunny Neo

2010-08-28T10:56:00.004+08:00

Sunny Neo Yong Kwang, a Scholar, an Officer and a Gentleman

Sunny graduated from the Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security in 2009, achieving 21 distinctions and 5As in his subject modules. He is awarded the iDA-BT Frontline National Infocomm Scholarship (NIS), fully sponsoring him to pursue his studies at both NTU and the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. Sunny has a remarkable fortitude to serve those whom he led -- whether it was the student committee at TP or his current platoon of men as a commissioned infantry officer in the Singapore Armed Forces. Indeed, he is a gentleman to his soldiers, his peers and his teachers.

Security sharing session

2010-08-24T20:43:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone, on the 8th of July 2010,

The AISP (Association of Information Security Professionals) and ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association) Student Chapters of Temasek Polytechnic Informatics & IT School had a sharing session regarding security exploits with CDS (Cyber and Digital Security) freshmen.

Presenters Zahid(left) and Zhi Keong(right) from the AiSPSC demo-ing what they had learnt

The session included a hacking demonstration on Windows operating system and how we could prevent it, followed by a Web exploit demonstration showing some common methods which could be used by a hacker, taking advantage of security flaws inherent in a web connection. The demonstrations were presented by Zahid and Zhi Keong from AISP student chapter and Kaiwen from ISACA student chapter respectively.

Teh Kaiwen from ISACASC diligently explaining web exploitation to the audience; At the background was Koh Hong Ye, also from ISACASC.

The number of attendees exceeded our expectation and we were very happy to announce that the event was a success. We had the lecturer and organiser of the event to thank for and of course not forgetting the presenters who gave such a wonderful presentation.

CDS Get Together Day

2010-07-31T22:28:00.009+08:00

Greetings everyone, On 22nd July 2010, we had our CDS Get Together Day! It was organised by the ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association) Student Chapter. For those without a clue about what’s ISACA, it is a professional body basically involved with system audit and control

CDS Students socialising with each other (click to enlarge)

We had about 70 attendees for the event, and we had fun playing a game of “water bombs” and having a barbecue with sumptuous chicken wings and satays. We also took the opportunity to invite our DPA (Direct Polytechnic Admission) students to join us for the event. We gave them a small tour of our school, and had a little sharing session to clear any doubts that they might have and also provided some general information about our course.

CDS students having fun with the barbeque while enjoying the cool night breeze

(click to enlarge)

I would say that the event was a great success and the credit goes to the ISACA Student Chapter, student helpers and staff advisors who offered their generous assistance in making this event possible.

Further Studies for Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security

2010-07-12T13:20:00.002+08:00

We have received an email from SIM Global Education about the further studies at UOW for our Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security holders. The email is as follows:

Our long term collaboration has seen many of your polytechnic graduates graduating from the IT Degree programmes offered by the University of Wollongong thru' SIM Global Education. We would like to extend our invitation to your students to our next information session next week at SIM-HQ and we would be most grateful if you could help to disseminate the information to the final year students. Details/Information:-

UOW programmes: Bachelor of Computer Science (Digital Systems Security)
offered at SIMGE Bachelor of Computer Science ( Multimedia & Game Development)
Bachelor of Information Technology

Speaker : Prof Willy Susilo
Date : 17 Jul 2010, Sat
Time : 2pm - 4pm
Venue : SIM-HQ, 461 Clementi Road,S'pore 599491
LT4-13 (Level 4)
Registration : Briefing Session on 17 Jul 2010, Saturday

Professor Willy Susilo, University of Wollongong
Professor Willy Susilo obtained his PhD from University of Wollongong in 2001, majoring Cryptography and Computer Security. His main
research interest include cryptography and computer security, in particular the design of signature schemes. He has attracted around 40 million Australian dollars in major competitive grants, including the highly prestigious Australia Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship, ARC Discovery Projects and
Linkage Projects, and industry grants such as Microsoft grants and Apple University Consortium research grants. He was also awarded the Australia Prime Minister and Cabinet's research grant in his project in securing future computing. He has collaborated with many other research colleagues, including
Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) Singapore and NUS.

You may contact either myself or Mr Bernard Sin if you require further information.

Thank you.

Marilyn Liow (Ms)
Senior Programme Executive
Higher Education, SIM Global Education
DID: 6248-4316 | Fax: 6462-9263 | Email: marilynliow@sim.edu.sg

Do contact us or Ms Liow directly if you are interested to attend the talk.

PG seminar

2010-07-03T19:54:00.001+08:00

There was a Parental Guidance Seminar 2010 held on the 3rd of July 2010 which was on a Saturday.

The great turnout of parents at the PG Seminar in TP.

It was raining on the day but that did not deter the participants from attending the event. The purpose of the seminar was to clarify any doubts that parents and students might have about our diploma, as well as to promote other various courses. Booths were set up by various diplomas to promote their courses at their respective schools.

Some of the CDS helpers involved in the seminar which included seniors and lecturers.

The Diploma CDS booth was set up at the lab location, together with other IIT School courses. The booth showcased Biometrics and a project by one of our graduates. The name of the project was “Color-Coded Security Keys”. It was about a novel authentication system, and it was also highlighted in The Straits Times newspaper.

Some of the CDS lecturers involved in the seminar

We would like to thank the students involved, especially the Diploma Ambassadors (Alwinson, Ying Jie and Zhi Keong), the helpers (Jie Xiang and Eugene) and also the lecturers who participated in the event.

3rd CDS Healthy Lifestyle Day

2010-07-03T15:38:00.003+08:00

The arrival of July may not be of much significance to anyone...
However, it meant much to us because on the first of July, we successfully held our 3rd CDS Healthy Lifestyle Day organised by AiSP Student Chapter.

Students playing badminton (click to enlarge)

This time, we decided to have two sport activities instead of just one, namely basketball and badminton. We are pleased to say that the number of participants has increased dramatically over the past events. We have gotten several lecturers to join us for the excitement. Joy could clearly be seen from their faces as they competed in friendly matches against each other.

Students and lecturers engaging in a game of basketball (click to enlarge)

Students from various years of study coming down together to engage in such healthy activities have proven yet and again, that these activities have helped to strengthen the bonds between members of the CDS family.

Syscan CTF 2010

2010-07-02T22:18:00.009+08:00

Hello everyone again!

In June 2010, 8 students from Temasek Polytechnic’s Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security (CDS) participated in the SyScan Capture the Flag (CTF) 2010 Competition held at Novotel Clarke Quay Hotel on 17 and 18 June 2010. The names of the 3 team from Temasek Polytechnic (TP) were Wizme, Hacktards and Unknown. Wizme and Hacktards were subsequently crowned the 1st and 2nd runner-up respectively.

The competition’s top prize of $10,000 attracted many industry professionals and polytechnics students. In total, out of 12 teams that participated in the competition, 9 teams were from the polytechnics including TP. The remaining 3 teams comprised of IT security professionals from the industry.

Members of Wizme (front row) & Hacktards (back row) (click to enlarge)

According to the rules, each team can have up to a maximum of 5 members but only 3 of them can participate in the competition simultaneously. VMware vSphere, a cloud operating system was used for the competition. Each team were given similar platforms which consisted of a variety of operating systems such as Debian Linux, Ubuntu Linux, CentOS, SuSE Linux, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server and Cisco IOS. These platforms were hosts to many applications/services such as the Apache web server, Microsoft IIS, MySQL server, DNS, FTP, Squid web proxy, Microsoft-ds and SSH. In addition, these platforms were protected by firewalls such as iptables and Cisco PIX firewalls.

The objective of each team was to secure their platforms and at the same time capture “flags” from their opponents. Every team were given a script (dubbed the “phonehome” script) which they have to plant in their opponents systems. The script will then send a signal to the scoring server at the organizer’s end signalling a successful compromise.

Competitors working hard at their workstations (click to enlarge)

On the first day of the competition, everyone wasted no time in setting up their workstations at their respective stations. The atmosphere was extremely tense as cyber attackers prepare their tools to commence their attempts to infiltrate their opponents’ systems. Meanwhile, the cyber defenders were also hard at work managing their systems. There were so many operating systems, applications and services to defend. Time was scarce! For the first few hours, there wasn’t much activity among the teams as everyone is still in the midst of preparing their systems and probing their opponents’ systems for weaknesses. Then suddenly, in the early afternoon, apart from TP teams, everyone’s networks were compromised by Hacktards. The first salvo was launched and the cyber war has begun! This sudden change of events allowed the teams from TP to gain an early advantage.

A member of Hacktards having a field day after disabling the other teams firewalls (click to enlarge)

After several hours of struggle from all the other competing teams, the organizer decided to restore back the network defences for the affected teams as none of them were able to restore on their own and this left them nakedly open to attacks from the TP teams. Thank goodness that our CDS diploma course taught us how to manage and secure network! The first day of the competition ended with all 3 teams from TP holding the top 3 positions – Wizme, Unknown and Hackards. Morale among the teams was at a high as they left Novotel Clarke Quay Hotel knowing that they had done a good job for the day.

The second day of the competition began with the same level of intensity in the atmosphere as the previous day. One of the few minor changes that the organizer made was to change the sitting positions among all teams in order to prevent them from collaboration. However, this time round, there was a drastic change of events. Out of the blue, the entire network was suddenly DoS (Denial of Service). The network traffic congestion was so severe that all the various attackers from each team were unable to launch their attacks.

As the day dragged on, more and more attacks surfaced on each team’s system. One of the more popular ones included an exploit carried out with the help of an exploit tool found in BackTrack. This exploit was carried out on the Windows XP system which was one of the operating systems each team had to defend.

Various teams from TP trying to mitigate the network traffic congestions (click to enlarge)

Near the end of the day, Hacktards discovered to their horrors that there was a widespread infiltration in almost every team systems including theirs. It was a most frantic and frustrating moment as there was insufficient time to clean the systems and launched new attacks. Arggh!!!

When the dust settled, the competition finally ended with Wizme in 2nd place and Hacktards in the 3rd position. Philosophically, we felt proud to have won the second and third position in the competition, especially when we have to face IT security professionals who had years of experience. But from the turn of event we experienced in the competition, we truly learnt that we cannot be complacent in security. The competition had been truly an eye-opening experience for us especially when we have to practice and improvise on what we learned in our diploma course. This is not the end…we will be back again next year!

This article is contributed by Neo Jie Xiang who is the President of TP’s AiSP Student Chapter. He is currently a Year 2 student studying the Diploma in Cyber and Digital Security and was a member of Hacktards.

Team Wizme (1st Runner-up)
(Left to right: Koh Ming Hao, Koh Jun Xiang, Yeo Keng Lin Cleve and Lim Cher Hui)
(click to enlarge)

Team Hacktards (2nd Runner-up)
(Left to right: Kester Yeo Jia Jun, Ngyuen Quy Hoang, Teh Kaiwen and Neo Jie Xiang)
(click to enlarge)

Brandon Lum Interview Video

2010-06-30T21:56:00.021+08:00

Below is the video interview taken during TP Graduation Ceremony.
The first video is an interview with Brandon Lum and the second video is an interview with Mr and Mrs Lum.
We would like to apologise for the low sound quality. To make up for that, we would display a verbatim text of the conversation below the respective videos.

Interview with Brandon Lum

1) Hi Brandon, so over the past 3 years in poly, how do you find the course Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security?

The course is comprehensive and there is a lot of depth to the course. By saying this, I meant that the course is not just all about theory. It allows you to get a hands-on experience on handling IT security. Best of all, the course provided me with opportunities to speak with industries professionals through seminars and conferences. I believe that the course reflects a high standard to the industry people.

2) What are some of the important things which you have learnt?

The course gave me a good foundation in Cyber Security. I get to learn useful knowledge relevant to the security industry such as forensics, auditing and penetration testing to name a few. The knowledge obtained can be further mapped onto industry certifications such as CISSP or SISA. I was also provided opportunities to work hand in hand with industry professionals.

3) So, upon graduation, what are some of the awards and certifications which you have acquired?
Some of the certifications which I have obtained include CCNA, RHCT and RHCE. Awards that I have obtained include Lee Kuan Yew award, Syscan CTF 09 Champion, Hellosecure Champion and Open Jive champion just to name a few.

4) What will be some advice which you would give to your fellow juniors currently in this course?

The most important is that you need to have passion. Pursue what you want and put in your best effort. I would also say this to them, follow you passion and success will follow you. Have an open mind and take things that come to you.

Interview with Mr and Mrs Lum

1) Hello, Mr / Mrs Lum. So how do you feel about your son’s graduation?

Mrs Lum: I am impressed with my son’s achievement and I feel that my son did a good job. The atmosphere for the graduation was nice.

Mr Lum: I feel that the school played an important part in my son’s success. The lecturers were helpful and the school environment is good.

2) Do you think Temasek Polytechnic Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security is the right course for him? Why?

Mrs Lum: Yes I feel that security plays a major part in IT

Mr Lum: I feel that security diplomas are considered to be in a pioneer stage and Singapore is putting in a lot of effort in terms of security.

3) Would you think that Temasek Polytechnic Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security is a feasible choice for students enthusiastic about security?

Mrs Lum: I feel that this is so. I feel that the course curriculum is comprehensive and there is a lot of depth in terms of what they study in this course.

Mr Lum: This course offers you opportunities to pursue industry certifications which would give you an edge over others.

4) Would you recommend this course to fellow parents who are looking to enrol their children in an IT security course in Temasek Polytechnic?

Mrs Lum: The environment in the school is excellent and possesses the latest technology in terms of study material. The course also allows you the freedom to pursue additional certifications. Overall I feel that it is a vibrant school with supportive lecturers.

E-cop data centre visit

2010-06-28T16:11:00.012+08:00

On 15th June 2010, AISP student chapter had organised a trip to E-cop data centre and we had overwhelming response and received more than 25 applicants which includes freshmen and juniors. The trip had been a great success and we are looking forward to another collaboration with E-cop for the next data centre visit.

Below are pictures of the trip and some reflection from the student involved,

All the participants taking a group shot in front of the E-cop logo (click to enlarge)

Alwinson: I had learnt a great deal of stuff on the visit to E-cop data centre. This was the first time I get to visit a data centre, and it had really surprised me that it really looks like those in the action movie where there will be a bunch on people on the computer 24/7 and having a projector to keep track of various statistic on the screen in real-time. We were taught on how the current economic is gradually changing and how important IT is and the roles that it plays. And how Innovation is the key in todays world. Overall, I had a really good time at the data centre and I'll definitely recommend anyone to go for such visit if possible.

Ying Jie: I feel that the trip was great. It is very useful and an eye opener for me who had never been to a IT company before. This trip to E-cop is another way to boost my passion to. The trip yesterday teaches us that passion can help in doing our jobs well and that may help strengthened the IT society. We learned that asia was the most users in the overall uses of phones , computer and other devices. Surprisingly china and india was the highest of all of them. This was something useful i had learnt and i hope that i can attend another of such trip again. It was an enjoyable and helpful trip.

Lastly we would like to thank the lecturer involved, Mr. Benjamin Mah from E-cop and of course E-cop for making this trip possible, it had been a beneficial and enjoyable trip.

Interview with Top Student Brandon Lum

2010-06-26T16:03:00.019+08:00

Hello everyone!
During the TP Graduation Ceremony 2010 in May,
The AiSP Student Chapter in collaboration with ISACA Student Chapter managed to catch up with out very own top student from our course Brandon Lum.

Brandon has done TP and the CDS family proud by clinching various distinguished awards.
He achieved these awards through participating in various competitions and the all-successful major project he did with his team mates: the smartshop

Below are some of the list of achievements Brandon attained throughout his journey in CDS:
(courtesy of Brandon)

-Lee Kuan Yew Award

-Syscan CTF09 Champion

-Hellosecure Champion

-Open Jive Regional Champion

-Sun Technology Award

-Sun Developers' Choice Award

-Elixir Market Potential Award

-Singapore Top IT Developers Award

-Singapore IT Federation (SiTF) Award

-Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Award

Not to mention the certifications he has obtained which includes Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), Red Hat Certified Technician (RHCT) and Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)

We had conducted an interview session with him and his parents which was recorded on video.
Nonetheless we are pleased to show you the photos we took during the interview session at the graduation ceremony.

The interviewing team with Brandon
(click on the photos to enlarge)

Proud parents of Brandon

Our pride of cds: Brandon Lum!

New Diploma Launched at IIT: Diploma in Digital Forensics!

2010-06-24T13:03:00.003+08:00

I am sure you have watch CSI and amazed by the detective work done by the CSI professionals in gathering clues and solving crimes. Here is a now a new course to be launched by TP. Digital Forensics - This course is about Cyber Crime Scene Investigation.

Do you know that your data can be recovered even after you have deleted it? Do you know that the emails or internet chat that you have sent or received can be an evidence in court? Computer Forensics & Investigation is the art and science of collecting and analysing data retrieved from digital devices, e.g. computers, handphones, cameras and networks for clues of a crime or fraud. The evidence is used to prosecute cases in a court of law or business matters.

Examples of when your skills is needed:

• An employee is suspected of committing fraud

• A hard disk is found in the house of a suspected terrorist.

• Hackers have compromised the system – a security breach is suspected.

• A person is suspected of a murder or kidnapping.

• Theft of sensitive government and corporate information such as military and Intellectual Property.

Why is the course important

There has been an increase in computer crimes worldwide, leading to huge losses of money for organisations that have been attacked by hackers, terrorists, fraudsters and criminals. With the pervasive use of computers for work and social communications, many traces of crimes could have been left in the computers that can be uncovered with computer forensics professionals. This has led to a surge in the demand for professionals who can investigate such crimes.

Highlighted in the News

1 in 4 Singapore companies has experienced fraud, and the number of computer fraud has increased from 19% in 2004 to to an astounding 59% in 2008! Each fraud costs S$4.4 mil on average.

FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) reported that Cyber Crime rate increases with monetary loss in US$264 million in 2008 in US alone.

Employment & Further Education

Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore Police Force, eCop, Government Organisations, Private Companies. You can also pursue degree courses in Computing with specialisation in computer forensics at local or overseas Universities.

What you will learn

The course combines legal, psychological and computer science techniques to collect, examine and present the evidence in a court of law, from the Crime Scene to Lab and to Court of Law/Business Management.

Key Subjects include Investigation Methodology & Techniques, Digital Media Forensics, Network Forensics, Introduction to Psychology of Deviant Behavior, Criminal Procedure for Forensics Analyst, Incident Response & Management

Find out more about the course on our website: http://www-iit.tp.edu.sg

Trip to Green Data Centre

2010-06-04T18:22:00.016+08:00

Hello Everyone!
On the 4th of June, AiSP Studies Club organised an exclusive visit to TP's very own

Green Data Centre!

A green data center is a repository for the storage, management, and dissemination of data in which the mechanical, lighting, electrical and computer systems are designed for maximum energy efficiency and minimum environmental impact. The construction and operation of a green data center includes advanced technologies and strategies!

Several AiSP members went for the visit. Below are their reflection on it, includes photos!

From Neo Jie Xiang, AiSP President:

"The data centre that we have at school is really more advanced and complex compared to the ones we have ever seen on a commercial scale outside. Also, we were greatly enlightened on the various concepts and foundations theory that a data centre was built on. This is also the first time we have ever been exposed to this green technology used in this sort of data centre and we were truly impressed by the complex technology implemented here in TP."

From Aloysius Lim, AiSP Vice-President:

"The Green Data Centre visit was really an eye-opening experience for me, I was really amazed at the complexity and detailed planning of the data centre. I learned that there are many considerations that comes into planning an efficient data centre, such as the temperature of the server room, the security of the room, the lighting within the server room and the safety measures in the case of fire or flood.Different from normal data centres, this visit also showed me the considerations taken to make the data centre as environment friendly, as possible, by making electricity usage to the minimum. In overall, I believe this was a very great and interesting visit for me and I would certainly recommend to others if possible."

From Jervois Chong, AiSP Treasurer:

"The green data centre visit was a very enriching experience. This is the first time we were exposed to such green technology about the data centre. For example, the in-role RP, by installing that, saves energy that cools usually other then crac. Not only were those, the safety features implemented in the data centre explained clearly. Overall, it was a very enjoyable trip."

2nd CDS Healthy Lifestyle Day

2010-05-29T19:11:00.013+08:00

On the 20th of May, the Cyber and Digital Security students participated in the 2nd Healthy Lifestyle Day. ^^

Our 2nd fortnightly event this time round is a huge success inviting more crowd from the staff of CDS & freshmen! =)

(click the picture to enlarge)

The picture epicts on the various participants who are preparing for the run.

Look at all their excited faces.. eager to spend their week long energy.. :D

AiSP Retreat 7 May 2010

2010-05-09T15:39:00.006+08:00

On the 7th May 2010,

The AiSP Committee held a retreat at Seoul Garden for its members

Commemorating their tireless efforts in managing and organizing various events for the course

There's nothing like a little laughter and the joy of good food as the members grace in happily

Take a look at the pictures!

CDS Healthy Lifestyle Day

2010-05-09T15:32:00.022+08:00

Hi everyone!
I hope you guys are doing just as fine as our CDS students right here!
Apparently they just had been refreshed from those long tiring hours in front of the computer
There's nothing like a game of badminton to strengthen back those old muscles
Giving the limbs some good stretchin'
Perhaps a chance to cut some calories too?
Well I've said enough and here are some of the photos taken during the first

CDS Healthy Lifestyle Day!

The 28th April Security Talk

2010-04-28T21:50:00.044+08:00

On the 28th April,
Our CDS students witness two great talks about security!
It's held right here in TP by two great speakers who is from CDS!
The two-hour talk jointly held by TP AiSP Student Chapter and the ISACA Student Chapter features exciting topics of discussion!

It started promptly at 5pm with a distinguish guest invited by ISACASC, Mr Hoo Chuan Wei and his topic about "How to prevent data from being stolen?".

Mr Hoo is an adjunct lecturer teaching Server Administration in TP.
Apart from that he has rich experience with more than 10 years in the areas of IT security management, policies and fraud as well as forensic investigation.
Not to mention the various distinguished MNCs from various industries he worked for that includes telecomm and banking. Clearly, the students present were engaged by the interesting experience he shared coupled with his deep knowledge about security. He is due to present this very topic in multiple renowned conferences this year such as the Info Security Conference 2010 on 6 May 2010 at Grand Hyatt, Singapore and the CSI Annual World Conference 2010 – International Cyber & Economic Crime Conference, which will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in June 2010. Our students are indeed fortunate because such conferences cost about $1000 per person and the fact that Mr Hoo has kindly agreed to share his knowledge and experience to TP students without payment is much appreciated.

Next in line, the AiSPSC proudly present our very own CDS student, Hamzah, who talked about Syscan Hacking Competition.

Hamzah was part of the team TP sent for the widely known Syscan Hacking Competition in which our students from CDS won 1st place in addition to the recognition of being the best offensive and defensive team. Hamzah is also one of our top students having clinched the prestigious scholarship offered by SPH. He shared with us some techniques of hacking employed in the competition which includes an exclusive demo!

With all those juicy contents, the audience are really in for a real treat!

All 'Bout DPA

2010-04-22T09:46:00.016+08:00

Hello beloved readers!
Recently we received several queries about DPA --> Direct Poly Admission.
To cater to those inquisitive minds, here's a lil' something for those interested to know more about DPA.

So what's DPA and how can it benefit you?
DPA as stated above, actually allows you to get ahead of your peers to enrol yourself inside TP even before your graduation! You get to enjoy special preparatory programmes but of course there's a criteria to it which basically means you must have the talent and good results to be enrolled.

A few sneak peak of what you get in DPA:
Headstart immersion programme
Orientation to poly life
Preparation for poly studies
Broad learning: CCAs, Leadership
And More!

So how can you apply for it?
For local students, you must have applied for 'O' Levels in year of application for DPA.
For foreign students, same thing but ensure that you are enrolled in either government, government aided or independent schools and have applied for 'O' Levels in year of application for DPA.
Additionally, make sure that you did not accept the DSA-JC offer in the first place!

For more information, please logon to http://www.tp.edu.sg/home/admissions/adm_exercise/dpa/dpa_faq.htm

Welcomin' the new CDS freshmen

2010-04-14T22:18:00.019+08:00

On behalf of the admins of the CDS blog,

We would like to give a warm welcome to the new CDS freshmen 2010!!

Welcome to the CDS family!

Hope you guys enjoy your stay here! ^^

Photos of 2nd ABSC Seminar

2010-04-11T17:03:00.034+08:00

Hello CDS fans out there!

We just recently concluded our very own 2nd All 'Bout Security and Connectivity seminar!

This seminar is organized by our fellow students Brandon Lum and Hamzah with the help of AISPSC and CDS student helpers.

For those who missed the seminar, scroll down to see some of the highlights of this great event!

Photos courtesy of Brandon Lum:

Fellow helpers from AISPSC busy handling the registrations

Our students busy showcasing their projects at the CDS project roadshow

Great turnout for this year's ABSC!

Scenes of the Web Challenge Competition

The ABSC Semniar in session

CDS Outreach to St. Hilda Secondary School

2010-04-05T13:53:00.005+08:00

On the 26th of March 2010, our diploma, Cyber and Digital Security (CDS) participated in an outreach programme to St. Hilda Secondary School. We sent several representatives including 2 helpers from the AISP TP Student Chapter who were led by our very own lecturer Mr Ho.

During the programme, we set up a booth in the canteen to cater to any enquiries about our diploma which were well received. In addition, flyers about CDS were also distributed. Mr Ho then conducted a presentation for the local secondary 4 students where he demonstrated a password cracking demo and showcased and exclusive VNC video done by our fellow diploma students in AISP.

The presentation was concluded with a feedback as well as a question and answer session in which prizes were distributed to students who could answer questions about our diploma based on the presentation.

2nd ABS (All'Bout Security) Seminar

2010-02-17T10:51:00.003+08:00

HiTB, Temasek Informatics & IT School and Diploma in Cyber and Digital Security presents you... All'Bout Security & Connectivity Seminar 2010.

REGISTER NOW for the Seminar and/or Web Challenge at http://allboutsecurity.eventbrite.com/

Following the well-received All 'Bout Security Seminar 2009, we would like to invite you to join us for this year’s event: All 'Bout Security & Connectivity Seminar 2010.

Venue: Auditorium 1, Temasek Polytechnic
Date: 5 March 2010 (Friday)
Time: 12nn to 6pm

The seminar provides a knowledge-sharing platform for IT Security & Networking Professionals and students. Invited speakers from companies such as SITSA, Symantec, ThinkSECURE, IEEE and SCS Biometric Technical Committee will be speaking on key IT Security/Connectivity topics ranging from measuring security risks to the future of IT security in Singapore.

Besides the series of talks, there will be an exciting line up of events:

- Web Challenge Competition (supported by HITB) in which participants compete to see how fast they are able to identify web vulnerabilities websites.

- Sharing on a new application layer attack on IIS Servers

- Project Showcase featuring projects ranging from secure video streaming to colour-coded security keys (for authentication).

More details of the event may be viewed at our website http://www.allboutsecurity.wordpress.com

REGISTER NOW for the Seminar and/or Web Challenge at http://allboutsecurity.eventbrite.com

Please register for the event before 28 February 2010.
We look forward to seeing you!

Why should you choose CDS at TP IIT?

2010-01-04T17:59:00.005+08:00

JAE is too near and some of you 'O' Level students may be eagerly waiting for your results next week. Depending on your situations most of you will go into Poly education, and some will go JC, some will go to ITE.

Other polytechnics also offer similar courses that are available for you to choose from in terms of IT Security.

CDS stands out as one of the BEST courses available for IT Security and information security in general. Here is why.

1) We have won the Syscan Hacking Competition 2009, grabbing both best attacking team and defending team awards. Note that some of the participants include koreans and even professionals. Total Prize money collected: SGD 10,000. Brandon Lum, Nicholas Foong, and Rodney Tan also won HelloSecure@SG (a secure code programming competition), SiTF (Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation) Award, APICTA (Asia Pacific IT Awards), Microsoft Office Skills National Champion (Nicholas Lim) and Runner-Up in Worldwide challenge.

2) We have partnerships with IT giants like IBM, Microsoft and Cisco (Cisco Networking Academy Program). TP-IBM IT Security Centre is the sign of true bond and collaboration between TP and IBM. Our students have industry attachments at IBM, Symantec, KPMG, Grant Thornton, SPF (Singapore Police Force), MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) doing real-world IT Security related jobs. The feedback from the supervisors regarding our students' performance is nothing short of excellent.

3) Our lecturers carry major IT certifications and train you to become just like one of them by focusing industry relevant teaching materials (not wasting your time by teaching you irrelevant stuff). Some of the examples would be CISSP, CISA, MCSE: Security, RHCSS and RHCE. This adds extra "weight" to your resume when you look for a job because you stand out in the crowd. Most of our freshmen (Year 1.2) and juniors (Year 2.2) have completed RHCT (Redhat Certified Technician) and some of them already hold CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate). This will defintely make you get noticed by anyone who understands the competency and relevancy of these certifications in IT industry.

4) We provide scholarships. Students with financial difficulties, we hear you out. Just talk to us during Open House or JAE. Industry partners and leaders like Cisco Systems, BT-Frontline, iDA Integrated Scholarship and Sunburst Scholarships are available for you (academic and/or financial scholarships).

5) We have created fun in learning - our lectures and reading materials are easily available for download via iTunes (thru your iTouch or iPhone). We believe in learning, anywhere, anytime.

For more details on the competitions, do check out the older post archives on the right.

CDS presents "PC Security Hazards that can happen to you"

2009-12-26T15:53:00.003+08:00

Champion of HelloSecure@SG Competition

2009-12-14T13:50:00.003+08:00

3 Days of helloSecure@SG competition – 23 to 25 September 2009

Hi all, my name is Brandon Lum, the team leader of CDS Q from Temasek Polytechnic Informatics & IT School Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security. In this article, I will share with you some of my personal experiences and views on the recently held helloSecure@SG competition.

This was a secure coding competition where teams had to create a functional and secure web application in 2 days of intense coding.

About helloSecure@SG

What I liked about this competition was that it was something new, a fresh idea. This was the first secure coding competition in the region, and I felt that it was a very unique idea. As an IT security student, I have heard often on the need to write bug-free software, software with a secure architecture, etc. However, many of us stayed focus on feature-rich applications, and do not put secure coding into practice. This competition has allowed me to learn several things, how to design secure applications and how to code securely.

In this article, I will be sharing with you several things, including, what it was about, some of the things we did, the difficulties that we faced, and of course, why I felt that this competition was enriching.

Competition Task

We were given 2 days, 12 hours per day (from 8am to 8pm) to code. We had to code a media portal to allow vendors to upload music files for sale. Users are able to buy, download, and administrators to administer the site. As the name of the competition suggests, all of this were to be done in consideration about of security! There were many interesting features to be implemented such as ensuring that the user can only download the file once.

What We Did

As it was a secure coding competition, besides functionality, there were many areas to consider. To begin with, good security comes about from good coding practices (i.e. catching errors properly, etc.), and additionally, we had to prevent common web attacks such as Cross-Site Scripting and SQL injections. Thus, we implemented measures such as input validation and made use of stored procedures. On top of secure coding, we implemented security features such as password policies, session expiration, file checking and encryption as well. Overall, we had a good blend of both secure coding practices as well as security features.

Our Difficulties

The journey was not always smooth, and we had our fair share of obstacles. First of all, about 2 to 3 weeks prior to the competition, the entire team had no experience with ASP.NET, and only a few of us had coded web applications before. However, in spite of the shortage of time, we had been able to pick up and familiarize ourselves with the language. The next obstacle we faced was during the competition. No participants were allowed internet access, and we only had the local MSDN documentation to work with. This made it very challenging as we were very much reliant on the internet as a source of answers and we had to use the local MSDN instead.

Our Thoughts

In conclusion, I felt that it was an enriching experience. The task was exemplified from real world working challenges. Aside from the technical aspects, there were many other things to worry about, such as time, resource and scope. Similar to a project in a corporate environment, there were questions raised such as: What is more critical? What is the risk level? What is the impact? Additionally, this was the first code-on-the-spot competition in which we had participated in. It has been an enjoyable experience to see how much we were capable of, in just a total of about 24 hours of coding.

The buzzer round kept us intrigued as it posed many questions which kept probing us to think hard. It also allowed us to put some of our knowledge about security into good use! After the competition, we felt that the entire experience was tiring, but fun

Article contributed by Brandon Lum, team leader of the winning team

Previous entry of the post can be found here with photos.

Winners of the Math Magic Mini Challenge

2009-11-24T10:36:00.002+08:00

Ok, the results are finally out.

WINNER: Jeremy Heng from Loyang Secondary School
CONSOLATION PRIZE: Justin Lee from Ngee Ann Secondary School

Congratulations to both Jeremy and Justin for doing really well for the mini challenge.

Both winners will be annouced where to collect the prizes via email/sms/phone calls to them.

Truly yours,
AISP TP Students
Organizers of Math Magic Mini Challenge 2009

Math Challenge Mini Competition

2009-11-21T01:39:00.003+08:00

Due to the fact that there is a secondary prom night, as well as bad weather conditions led us to postpone the Digital C.S.I. Competition to until further notice.

Meanwhile, the organizers has came up with Math Challenge to teach some of the students how to cipher and encrypt and decrypt messages. After half an hour break and chit-chat with CDS students, participants continued with the mini competition.

After gruling two hours of solving the mystery behind secret locations as well as secret messages, finally the event was over. The outcome of the events were still yet to be finalized until Monday (sorry and apologies to those who waited since 9PM for the results).

As mentioned, the judges decision would be the final and it will be announced on Monday, who has the fastest and most accurate results for this mini-challenge.

Once again, on behalf of Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security and Temasek Informatics & IT School, we thank you for coming down and participated in this event. Hope you all had fun!

See you all again soon at the Digital C.S.I. competition. Stay tuned here for more info.

Regards,
Organizers
AISP TP Student Chapter

Digital C.S.I Competition

2009-11-11T21:58:00.001+08:00

Our diploma will be organising a Digital C.S.I. (Cyber Security Investigation) competition for secondary school students on 20 Nov 2009, Friday from 1pm to 5pm at Temasek Polytechnic. There will be attractive prizes such as a HP notebook and PDAs. During this competition, we will hold a mini-workshop where we will teach you simple crytographic techniques which will enable you to craft and decode secret messages.

Refreshments will be available after the workshop and the competition will start immediately after that. During the competition, you will be introduced to a crime scene where a victim was ruthlessly murdered. Before the victim died, he left clues on the identity of his murderer. Using the cryptographic techniques that you just learned in the workshop, you will attempt to decode the clues left behind and find out who is the murderer! The clues and messages are left all over Temasek Polytechnic so you are advised to wear appropriate attire in your quest to locate them.

If you are interested, pls email to iit@tp.edu.sg by 19 Nov, Thurs, 12 noon. We’ll put up the posters at a later date. Please also note that this competition is only open to Secondary School students and ITE students.

Alternatively, you can go here for the online registration:

http://epoly.tp.edu.sg/tpapp/esurvey/survey.do?s=DCSI01&g=1

Digital C.S.I (Cyber Security Investigation)

Date: 20th November 2009

Timing: 1 PM to 5 PM

Venue: Temasek Polytechnic

Regards,
Aloysius Lim, AISPSC

CDS Subjects

2009-11-09T13:27:00.004+08:00

There are various security subjects that you will be learning as CDS student, when you get to year 2.2 -- including the following interesting subjects.

1. FDS - Forensics in Digital Security
2. EHIP - Ethical Hacking & Intrusion Prevention
3. ITSMA - IT Security Management & Audit
4. INKS - Internetworking Security

Video was done by AISP Student Chapter at TP. Enjoy learning about IT Security!

Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security Promo Video

Diploma in Digital Forensics Promo Video

Our Fact Sheet for 2009

2009-11-09T09:23:00.007+08:00

This document contains all the information you need to know about our course, Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security at Temasek Informatics & IT (IIT) School.

Here is the link to the PDF format file.

Japan Study Trip

2009-11-08T22:47:00.030+08:00

Trip to Japan

Day 1

Recently, several of our Diploma in Cyber and Digital Security students were given a chance to set out in a study trip to Japan where they visited various locations such as the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and also had hands-on experience making soba! Shall not say anymore, let the pictures below bring you through the whole trip!

On the first day of the trip, we arrived at Narita International Airport

We then proceed to Odaiba, where we saw the saw the statue of liberty

Afterward, we went to Mirai-Kan which is a national museum of emerging science and innovation.

We also visited the Bank of Japan and the currency museum

After that we went to Yokoya Onsen Ryokan, where we had dinner and slept for the night and we began our 2^nd day

We went to the Ryokan where we made our own soba

and ate it for lunch

We then travelled to the Ueda Multimedia Centre

Afterward we proceeded to our home-stay, where we had dinner

This was the area we slept at

The next morning we woke up at around 5 in the morning and before going off we gave them some gifts from Singapore and took some pictures with them

When we were in Tokyo we visited places like Asakusa Akhirabara, Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku.

Akihabara

Asakusa

Shibuya

Harajuku

Shinjuku

Tokyo Stock Exchange

Tokai University

Tokyo Disneyland

Last but not least we also went to secom

Pictures provided by Bryan.

Regards,

Aloysius

AISPSC

Our Photo Taking Session

2009-10-27T17:09:00.011+08:00

Last week, a few of the CDS students gathered to take pictures in our TP-IBM IT Security Lab. Some of the pictures were snapped by our Course Manager, Ms. Mandy Mak herself (didn't know she's into photography!)

Brandon Lee, our former TPSU (Temasek Polytechnic Student Union) President and currently the VP of TPSU, and Siying Tan, our CDS freshmen, posed for great photos.

Some of our freshmen also included in the photoshoot. Do check out the photos later after I've done uploading them for the slideshow (newly added on the left).