Launching the 2025 Cyber Security Student Competition with a 'hot' topic

On October 8, the National Cyber Security Association (NCA) officially launched the 2025 Cyber Security Student Competition. The competition is hosted by NCA, under the auspices of the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Education and Training, in coordination with the Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention (A05).

The contest will take place with two main rounds including the Preliminary round (October 18) and the Final round (November 15) in Hanoi , gathering a large number of students from universities and colleges in the country and some international schools.

With the theme “Data security and personal data protection,” the competition is an opportunity for students to directly approach real-life cybersecurity situations, thereby developing professional skills, improvisational thinking and creativity.

The exam committee is made up of technology companies such as Viettel, VNPT, FPT, CMC , NCS, Vietsunshine, CyRadar, Misoft, Misa, Mi2, Bkav... and independent experts. With more than 30 experts, who are very experienced and have many years of experience in domestic and international cybersecurity competitions, the members of the exam committee are capable of creating an intellectual playground, inspiring the next generation of cybersecurity students.

The competition is organized with 2 main rounds, including the Preliminary round and the Final round. The rounds are designed with different forms and contents, aiming to comprehensively evaluate from basic knowledge to application skills and the ability to handle cyber security situations.

Illustrative photo. (Photo: Minh Son/Vietnam+)

The Preliminary Round will take place on October 18, 2025 and will be held online in the form of Jeopardy CTF, including many specialized areas such as Pwnable (exploiting software bugs, buffer overflow, shellcode), Reverse Engineering (reversing source code, analyzing packer/crypter), Web Security (detecting and exploiting web application vulnerabilities), and Cryptography/Algorithmic Challenge (decoding algorithms, applying programming skills - algorithms to overcome the challenge). This round helps to comprehensively evaluate the candidates' fundamental and technical capabilities.

The Final Round will take place on November 15, 2025 and will be held at the headquarters of the Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention, Ministry of Public Security.

The best teams that pass the Preliminary round will compete in the Final round with two groups: Group A includes 20 teams representing the 20 schools with the highest results in the Preliminary round (1 team from each school), will compete in direct attack-defense. The teams will attack and defend the simulated Data Center.

Group B consists of teams representing schools, each school has 1 team with the highest results in the Preliminary round, but is not a team in Group A. The teams will compete in Jeopardy with content about Web, Pwnable, Revers, Crypto, Forensic, IoT, Blockchain and AI.

The total prize value of the Competition is up to 250 million VND in cash, along with scholarships from prestigious training units, technology products and services; career experience opportunities with direct advice from leading experts in the field of cybersecurity and digital technology.

In addition, the competition results of Vietnamese student teams are the basis for NCA to nominate Vietnamese representative teams to participate in regional and international cybersecurity competitions such as Cyber SEA Game, ASEAN Cyber Shield, etc.

At the Final round on November 15, 2025, in parallel with the competition schedule of the competing teams, the event also took place at the "Cyber Security Students" Festival at Hanoi Children's Palace (Pham Hung Street, Cau Giay Ward).

With the message "Honoring intelligence - Nurturing talent" and "Going ahead - Being proactive and pioneering", the 2025 Cyber Security Student Competition is not only an academic playground but also an important bridge between training, research and practice, contributing to the effective implementation of the Project on Training and Developing National Cyber Security Human Resources by 2030./.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/phat-dong-cuoc-thi-sinh-vien-an-ninh-mang-2025-voi-chu-de-nong-post1068873.vnp