ABU DHABI, 25th July, 2023 (WAM) — 42 Abu Dhabi, an innovative and disruptive coding school, and BEACON RED, an advanced cyber solutions provider that tackles complex national security threats, have jointly organised their second hackathon under the title "Cyber Warriors: Unleashing the Power of Bug Bounties in Cybersecurity".
The hackathon, which was attended by over 60 students from 42 Abu Dhabi, focused on Bug Bounty programmes, which have become an essential part of cybersecurity and have a significant impact on all sectors of the economy.
These programmes incentivise independent researchers, often referred to as bug bounty hunters or ethical hackers, to identify and report vulnerabilities in the organisation's software, websites, or network infrastructure.
During the hackathon, BEACON RED showcased existing Bug Bounty programmes, and 42 Abu Dhabi students worked together to take the first steps to participate in such programmes and to uncover vulnerabilities. To track progress, a live scoreboard showed the names of students leading in discovery within the Bug Bounty programs.
Marcos Muller Habig, Acting CEO of 42 Abu Dhabi, said, "Hosting this hackathon comes as part of the 42 Abu Dhabi's commitment to elevate the students' learning experience and create a talent pool of coders who are equipped with advanced problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration skills, and ready to drive the Emirate's tech landscape. It also reaffirms our efforts to collaborate with leading organisations and challenge students with hands-on projects which allow them to apply their wealth of coding knowledge."
Akewak Biru was awarded first place in the hackathon, followed by Yonatan Kefyalew in second place and Simon Zerisenay in third place.
Bug Bounties are critical to all economic sectors as they help identify vulnerabilities, protect customer data, enhance cybersecurity, and encourage ethical hacking.
42 Abu Dhabi is an innovative and disruptive coding school, launched in 2020 as an initiative of the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK) and Abu Dhabi's Ghadan 21 accelerator programme, which aims to drive Abu Dhabi's ongoing development through multi-faceted investments in business, innovation and people.