The Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) and Kindi Centre for Computing Research at Qatar University College of Engineering (QU-CENG) have announced the winners of the Ethical Hacking Competition.

As many as 100 students from CENG participated in the competition in which they tested an organisation’s computers to detect if they are vulnerable to outside attacks.
The first place winners were Mohamed Saad, Mohamed Amaan Sheikh and Azeem Mohamed (Anonymous team). The second place went to Amro Darder, Mazen Abdelfattah and Mohamed Ali (SkyNet team), while the third place winners were Yassmine Barkallah, Fatma al-mansoori and Manel Ferjani (CyberGuards team). The third-place ex aequo was achieved by students Mohamed Sadok Gastli, Jyohan Joglekar and Mustafa Farag Ibrahim Aly Rakha (Pandas team).
CENG dean Dr Khalifa al-Khalifa noted that “ethical hacking” and “ethical hacker” are terms used to describe hacking performed by individuals to help identify potential threats on a computer or network. He also explained that an ethical hacker attempts to bypass system security and search for any weak points that could be exploited by malicious hackers.
“This information is then used by the organisation to improve the system security in an effort to minimise or eliminate any potential attacks,” he said.
“This competition aligns with CENG’s mission to produce graduates who are experts in computer science and engineering and to provide the industry with national engineers and high-qualified professionals who will contribute to realise the goals of Qatar National Vision 2030.”
CSE head Dr Sumaya al-Madeed said: “Ethical hacking is a key component to strengthening the system security of an organisation, and it is one of the most wanted criteria for any professional in the field of cyber security. By simulating the attackers we can discover the weaknesses in our own organisations and provide efficient solutions to maintain the security of our systems.”

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