HR4RS stamp
Raul Garcia Hemonnet
The URJC 'Bug Bounty' cybersecurity contest has just finished its IV Edition. It is the first time that 3 awards have been awarded.
The first prize has been for Raúl Martín Santamaría, the second for Alejandro Cruz Martínez and the third for Carlos Alonso Arranz. All of them are seniors. The first has taken a laptop, while the second and third have been made with two NAS connected storage devices.
In 'Bug Bounty', students from different URJC degrees must find weaknesses in the computer infrastructure and report them.
The awards, explains José Antonio Rubio Blanco, head of computer security at the URJC, "have been given according to the number of vulnerabilities found, their complexity, the methodology used to find them and the completeness of the report sent." Blanco adds that, “The students have indicated that this activity contributed a lot to them, as they were able to put into practice knowledge learned in the classroom in a real computer environment, although it was controlled, obviously, and with some rules to comply with”.
This edition of 'Bug Bounty' has been possible thanks to the collaboration of the companies Palo Alto Networks, Zerolynx and LEET Security.
This contest is a pioneering initiative within public administrations in Spain, “so it is something we can be proud of. In addition, students are offered an activity that brings them a lot at a professional level, since they gain practical experience and the winners of course have a very interesting mark to add to their curriculum. They are profiles that are in high demand by companies, and it is very difficult for them to find them. Therefore, perhaps value is also added to the business environment, by offering actions aimed at professional profiles that are in high demand”, indicates José Antonio Rubio.
An opportunity for all those students who want to show their talent and, at the same time, help their university to have more secure computer networks.