A team from ISBAT University has won Centenary Bank’s first University Cybersecurity Hackathon, beating 25 other university teams.
The competition ran throughout October as part of the bank’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month, under the theme “Building a Secure Digital Future.” Teams were tested on real-world scenarios including application security, vulnerability analysis, secure software development and incident response.
Of the 26 teams that entered the qualifying round, four made the grand finale: one each from ISBAT and Kyambogo University, and two from Victoria University.
The results
| Place | Team | University |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | ISBAT1 | ISBAT University |
| 2nd | Tarus X | Victoria University |
| 3rd | Fraud Hunters | Victoria University |
| 4th | Crack Team | Kyambogo University |
ISBAT’s Uthman Sseruwooza also took the Best Individual Student Award.
The prizes
The winners received vouchers worth $1,500 for the eJPT (eLearnSecurity Junior Penetration Tester) certification, a popular entry-level ethical hacking credential. The runners-up won $75 in Hack The Box vouchers. All four finalist teams received a year of free access to cybersecurity courses on the CodeRed platform.
Security from day one
Centenary Bank’s Executive Director for Operations, Michael Opira, said the bank wanted students to learn to build security into technology from the start rather than add it later, before they enter the workforce.
“As we innovate, cybersecurity must be part of the process not something we think about afterwards,” he said at the finale.
Opira said the bank has invested heavily in security systems because its business depends on customer trust, but that technology alone is not enough without the people who use and build it.
Coming back bigger
Rodney Hood Adriko, the bank’s Head of Information Security Assurance, said the students’ skills showed Uganda has a promising pipeline of cybersecurity talent. He said the bank plans to make the hackathon an annual event, open it to more institutions, and use it to bridge the gap between what universities teach and the security problems industry faces.
Did your university take part? Tell us. @campusbee.ug
