A group of female students from the Department of Cybersecurity at the University of Science and Technology of Jordan participated in SHEHacks, the first competition of its kind in the Middle East to promote the role of women in the field of information security. The competition featured cash prizes of up to $10,000 and included challenges in the areas of cryptography, reverse engineering, hacking web applications and servers, and exploiting vulnerabilities.
Details of the contest
Launched as part of the Cyber Zero to Hero programme with the support of the Dutch Foreign Ministry and in collaboration with the Jordan Design and Development Centre and CyberShield Academy, the competition aimed to empower women in cybersecurity through challenges inspired by Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions. Sponsored by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship and Orange Jordan, the event went through several stages, from registration, training and preparation, to the initial challenges and the final stage.
Distinguished Achievement
A group of teams from the University's Cybersecurity Department participated in the preliminary qualifiers, and one team qualified to participate in the final qualifiers to achieve third place out of 56 teams, and then qualified to achieve fourth place bis out of 15 teams participating in the final qualifiers. This team consisted of female students:
- Sara Wasel Al-Omari
- Hala Haitham Abulbada
- Roaa Abdulghani Al-Omari
This participation was under the supervision of Dr Hala Hamada and Engineer Fatima Abu Hajila from the Cybersecurity Department.
The importance of participation
The Dean of the College of Computer and Information Technology, Prof. Mounir Musa'a, and the Head of the Cybersecurity Department, Dr Qasim Abu Al-Haija, stressed that such participation reflects the technical excellence and academic commitment of the students, in addition to the university's keenness to prepare students for local and international competitions.
Conclusion
Such events enhance the technical skills of female students and open the way for them to actively contribute to the field of cybersecurity, which is one of the most important specialisations in the digital age.
