Students compete at the HackforGov competition organized by DICT in Manila. Organizers say they want students to enhance their technical skills & critical thinking online. Jekki Pascual, ABS-CBN News

MANILA -- The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) kicked off its HackforGov Capture-the-Flag competition in Manila on Friday. 

Several students from different schools in the National Capital Region joined the competition for a chance to move to the national level contest.

The Philippine National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-PH) and the Cybersecurity Bureau of DICT said the competition aims to raise the level of awareness among students on the importance of cybersecurity and provide them with hands-on experience in the techniques used online.

“You need to be good in analyzing, sometimes psychological, hindi yan purely technical. What we are developing right now is pinaka importante- critical thinking,” said Jose Carlos Reyes, Director of the Cybersecurity Bureau.

 Students compete at the HackforGov competition organized by DICT in Manila. Organizers say they want students to enhance their technical skills & critical thinking online. Jekki Pascual, ABS-CBN News

Students were gathered in a room and were given tasks or scenarios. Their goal is to capture the flag hidden in a computer program. Reyes said the scenarios are similar to real-life issues that they may eventually encounter.

“Sharing these experiences and information, pag meron na sila ‘o nangyari na sa amin yan, this is what we do’,” he said.

Reyes added that the country needs more cybersecurity professionals and these students can be among those who can join cybersecurity teams of either government or private sector. He revealed his bureau alone needs 200 cybersecurity professionals.

Student Aldwin Tapican from New Era University is among the defending champion teams at the NCR level. He said they had to undergo a lot of preparation for this competition especially as he also wants to become a cybersecurity professional in the future.

“Inaral po namin iba-ibang domains ng cybersecurity- forensics, cryptography, stenography, and mga investigations pa,” said Tapican who is a Computer Science student.

(We studied various domains of cybersecurity like forensics, cryptography, stenography, and investigations.)

Angeline Jores is an IT student from Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and is among the few female participants in the competition. She said she is happy to also represent women in the male-dominated IT sector asserting that women too can excel in this field.

“Pag attend namin dito achievement na po sa amin kahit di pa nanalo, kasi representative din kami ng school and at the same time bilang babae rin po,” said Jores.

(Our attendance here is already an achievement even if we lose because we represent not just our schools at as women as well.)

The competition will also head to the provinces before a national-level contest is held sometime in the fourth quarter of the year. Winners of the national competition will represent the country in the international tournament.

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