6 of the MCC alumni were selected to receive Black Hat Asia Student Scholarship this year! To be selected, the candidate must show their achievements and contributions to the community. This is a proud achievement as this could be a proof that their achievements and contributions to the community are recognised by the Black Hat Asia Student Scholarship panels.

Well done Amir, Teng, Naqib, Zach, Sarah and Amin! We hope all 6 of you enjoyed the conference.

Last year, TCM Security sponsored us with three valuable PNPT vouchers and Firdaus was one of the lucky participants who received it. Today, we received the good news that he successfully passed the exam!

Congratulations! And thank you TCM Security for sponsoring us and supporting our efforts in building the a quality next-generation cybersecurity practitioners in Malaysia!

We had our first gathering of the year at RNZ Steamboat & Grill. MCC2022 and MCC2023 alumni gathered for the first time and it was fun to meet them. Everyone shared about their current life including working, FYPing, internship and more! We were also joined by other friends including MCC trainers.

Oh also, also congratulations to those who got to the final round and won the top 10 in the RENTAS CTF!

Alfian from our MCC2023 batch conducted a two-day workshop on Digital Forensics and Binary Exploitation at his previous study place, Politeknik Mersing! This is the first sharing session conducted by our MCC2023 batch.

His workshop was attended by approximately 30 students who keen to learn and explore more about the cybersecurity. We are grateful with the support he received from his lecturer, Ms Mas Ayu from the Politeknik Mersing.

His full post about this achievement can be found here

W00t! We are proud to know that three of the MCC alumni were selected to join this year’s Global Cybersecurity Camp! The members were:

• Yeo Jia Qi (MCC2022)
• Roheender Singh (MCC2023)
• Muhammad Firdaus Amran (MCC2023)

Fatah once again stepped-up his game by conducting an online-sharing about “Reverse Engineering and Binary Exploitation: Intel x86/x86-x64 Assembly”. This is a part of his self-learning in pursuing his dream to be someone that is well-known in the Malware Research and Development field.

The sessions were recorded and available at REHACK’s Youtube:

• https://youtu.be/8dGDYRWwawQ (first part)
• https://youtu.be/vWOSPK8p1wE (second part)
• https://youtu.be/xx62TN7NFIY (third part)

REHACK experimented an online Capture-the-Flag competition for female only in December. It was participated by almost 100+ players locally!!

Better, when the top 10 of the competition was won mainly by MCC alumni! Congratulations Yen Wai, Jia Qi, Hanan, Shiau Huei, Emmy, and Wei Ying !!

• https://www.rehack.my/p/projects.html

The hottest CTF competition nationwide, Battle of Hackers (BOH), is back again for the 2023 edition on December 2nd. The competition was divided into two categories, which were ASEAN and local. We are proud to share that our alumni and crews managed to win the following places:

1. 1st runner-up for the local category: Choo, Teng, and ShengHe (Team Cincai)
2. 2nd runner-up for the local category: KS, Kelvin, and Mohin (Team L0stPaR4d0x)
3. 4th runner-up for the local category: Wan, Haidar and his team (Team anti_1337)

Seeing new faces and newcomers in CTF, as well as participation from our new members, MCC 2023 in CTF, is heartwarming. Seeing their consistency in continuously polishing their skills and proving to themselves, especially that they can grow better from time to time, truly makes us feel proud.

On November 25, Hanan did another sharing session on unleashing and exploring the fundamentals of CTF! This open sharing session was organised at UniKL with the intention of exposing beginners to the Capture the Flag competition and how to play the game.

As a CTF player and challenge creator herself, she guided participants during a 3-hour session with fundamental understanding, tips and tricks to solve challenges, as well as her personal perspective as a challenge creator in creating challenges. She also provided hands-on practical and mini CTF challenge for the participants to gain actual experience from!

We hope that her spirit of exposing newcomers and beginners to participating in CTF can increase the level of cybersecurity enthusiasm among students.

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/uniklmiitcssc_attention-to-all-students-activity-7131135332636393472-DmGt?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

On the 21st to 24th of November, four teams representing Malaysia arrived in Jakarta to compete in the first Capture the Flag competition by Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), called Asean Cyber Shield. The two teams from the Student Category were participated by Team Cincai and Team Excelsior. Some of the members are from MCC2022 and MCC2023 alumni.

All four teams managed to move to the Final round after able to be the top 5 in each categories. Team Cincai managed to secure 3rd place during this competition and at the same time set a history for Malaysia in the international CTF.

More about this can be read:

• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7134770504065777669/
• https://www.astroawani.com/berita-malaysia/kontingen-malaysia-beraksi-cemerlang-di-asean-cyber-shield-hacking-competition-2023-447674
• https://main.aseancybershield.org/notice/116
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGNkZuzQy7Y
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVn2fMC6n0Q

That’s right! We recently have been informed that one of our MCC2022 alumni , Shafiq is currently in Japan as part of his exchange culture program. Even though he is currently in a foreign country, his love in cybersecurity is still burning. On November 11th, Shafiq together with his mate, Irfan attended AVTOKYO, a Computer Security Conference operated by the Japanese Hacker Community. From their feedback, the event was awesome and there were many interesting topics that they learned about especially on the malware and AI topics.

We hope they could still be able to join more cybersecurity events over there and bring back more good memories to be shared with us, here in Malaysia!

Team Cincai – Alvin, Choo, KS and Teng; recently representing Malaysia in Bangkok to compete in an onsite Capture the Flag game organised by ASEAN-Japan Cybersecurity Capacity Building Center.

Competing with the ASEAN teams, Team Cincai managed to solve all challenges on the first day. However, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand were faster than them on that day and leaving them at the 4th place. So close Team Cincai!! But we are proud with you guys!!!

Read it more here:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nacsamalaysia_malaysiamadani-nacsamalaysia-cyberseagame2023-activity-7127999625193521152-zjo5

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ajccbc_ajccbc-activity-7130116343126769664-5jcI

Our future security researcher, Fatah, was invited on November 10th by the organisers from GMI, UTeM, and other sponsors who collaborated to give a technical sharing to all cybersecurity students from both institutions. 

For more than two hours, he managed to share technical information while also teaching the students some technical skills and tricks! The sharing revolves around Assembly Language Programming for Windows x86/x64 for Reverse Engineering and Binary Exploitation, in which he managed to cover 28 topics focusing on the art of Intel processor assembly for Windows and Linux!

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/fatah-iix_see-you-guys-soon-activity-7128233872420438016-q3LM?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

On November 4th, Nik Amir together with his friends successfully brought back the Capture the Flag competition in UNITEN. It has been years since the last CTF was held in UNITEN. Amir hopes that with the recent 10:Hats Internal CTF, UNITEN could produces more passionate and talented youth in cybersecurity.

Read it more here https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ymiir_kitauniten-operation10-cciuniten-activity-7127855516449460224-bh5Y

In October, we have been informed that, Nik Amir was currently in the middle of organising an internal cybersecurity event for UNITEN under their “Pro-C UNITEN” club. As part of the pre-intro of the event, Amir with their team decided to run a series of beginner-friendly cybersecurity workshop for the students.

Naqib took part in this adventure by volunteered to be one of the speakers and shared a beginner-friendly about Web Exploitation in CTF. He shared some insightful contents to the audience based on his achievements and experience in CTF.

Congrats to you both for stepping up the game! This shows that a collaboration between different universities is possible!

Read it more here https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ymiir_dear-connecction-i-thrilled-to-share-my-activity-7127847526610702336-XtdB

The long-awaited Game of Hackers (GOH) that finally returned after two years on October 21st, 2023, uplifted the excitement amongst university students, including our alumni and crews. We are delighted to share with everyone that our crews, alumni, and MCC 2023 managed to ‘hack’ the competition as follows:

1. Champion: Kelvin, Mohin and William (Team L0stPaR4d0x)
2. 1st runner-up: Jia Qi, Zach, and Darrshan (Team DinoDefenders)

Besides winning the competition, Team L0stPaR4d0x managed to be the only team to solve the bounty challenge and was awarded as the bounty winner. Cheers to more achievements to be unlocked by them in the future!

On the night of October 29, 2023, our Abang Tesla, Naqib, makes some time to share with us his tips and tricks to pass the certificate by ISC2, which is Certified in Cybersecurity (CC). He, who just recently passed the examination, told us that it is important to understand our own study habits; however, it is necessary for us to be consistent. He provided alternative platforms that provide certification contents to add his understanding in preparing for the certification.

Besides that, he shared various types of certificates available to be taken for cybersecurity enthusiasts who wish to build and improve their portfolio and chances to get the attention of recruiters. One of the reasons mentioned by Naqib was that ISC2 is one of the organisations that has reputable values that will shine on one’s resume.

We hope that more of our alumni will pass this and other certification exams with flying colours! Let’s wish them good luck!

They did it again. This time during the iTREXC cybersecurity challenges which was held at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC), 19 – 21 October 2023.

Champion – Team Cincai v1.2 – Choo,Teng and ShengHe

2nd Prize Winner – Team DinoDefend3rs – Jia Qi , Zach and Darrshan

3rd Prize winner – Team Darksid3rs – Kelvin, KS and Roheender

4th Place – Team OnlyFood – Naqib, Megat and Akram

Eh, why there are new names highlighted above? They are from MCC2023!!

In celebration of Hacktober and Global Cybersecurity Month, PETRONAS organised the Inter-University 2023 Capture the Flag Competition at KLCC from October 9 to 10.

Performing consistently and as always, we would like to share the success of our MCC 2022 alumni and crews who managed to hit the jackpot and became the winners of this game:

1. Champion: Damien, David, Shiau Huei and Wesley (Team OnlyFeet)
2. 1st runner-up: Aniq, Hazim, Nazmy and Danial (Team 0x94fbr)

Shout out to other alumni who participated in the same competition. What matters most is the experience and knowledge gained and becoming the winners of their enthusiasm.

Teng is actively upskilling himself in reverse engineering domain. On the 24th of September, Teng once again shared some techniques that he learned while solving the CTF challenges from CSAW CTF.

The session was conducted online and the recording is available at REHACK’s Youtube, https://youtu.be/NrvQ5oQuyW0?si=w4A0LlprH-vS9L2v

Team L0stPaR4d0x that was represented by Kelvin, KS and Mohin accomplished some amazing achievements during the BATxAPU CTF 2023, an internal CTF organised together by British American Tobacco and APU which was held on the 2nd of September 2023.

According to them, the ctf was different than regular ctf. They were provided with a scenario where they need to solve a kidnapping case, requires them to go around the campus to obtain challenges while gathering evidence to solve the mystery. The challenges were focused on blue team path, that included Forensics, OSINT, RE, Crypto. At the end of the ctf, they required to create a Forensic Report on the evidence found to summarise the story line, along with the ctf writeup.

On the 6th of September 2023, MCC alumni and crew members were invited to experience Malaysia’s First Experiential Cybersecurity Conference organized by Cybertronium at Connexion Conference & Event Centre (CCEC), Nexus Bangsar South.

The world of Cybertron did not only conferences involving cybersecurity awareness and conference about the current technology that are implemented to defend against cyberattacks, they also demonstrated and showcased a real-life hacking situation that occur through our daily lives. According to the Optimus Prime, Dr Clement Arul, the aim of the event was to expose to the commoners and people with less to none cybersecurity knowledge to truly understand the needs to protect their data and how dangerous can a threat be impacting their organisations or even themselves!
It was truly an honour for our team to be given the opportunity to attend the conferences and observe the demonstrations ourselves. We believe our crew and alumni would definitely gain a lot of practical understanding through the exposure given from the event!

During CyberDSA, our alumni and crews did not miss their chance to gather at the event. Remaining in contact while exploring the event together bonds them together, which warmly creates the synergy of friendship amongst them. They always keep each other updated on their current activities.

While exploring the scene of cybersecurity through visiting vendors, listening to flash talks, and joining the training sessions, our crews and alumni attended the event to support the others who were participating in CTF as well as promote MCC together! Cheers to the bond they created on this journey together.

The Cyber Defence and Security Asia Expo & Conference (CyberDSA), which took place on August 15–17, 2023, at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, is a yearly event that collectively aims to outreach decision-makers in both governments and private sectors to advance their cyber defence and security agenda through the divulgence of the latest knowledge and new trends on cybersecurity while demonstrating innovative technology that will safeguard and promote digital economies and global competitiveness.

During the event, a CTF competition namely Siber Siaga CTF: Code Combat was held for 3 days, from August 14 to 16, 2023. The CTF was first held online for the pre-qualifying round to only bring the top 10 teams to participate in the final round that was held for 2 days, from 15 to 16, at the convention centre live. We would like to applaud our crews and alumni for their enthusiasm, which led them to win the following places:

• David and Kelvin from team Nuts won the first runner-up.
• KS from team Darksid3rs won the 6th place.
• Jia Qi from team DinoDefenders was in the 9th place.
• Aniq from team 0x9fbr was in the 10th place.

May all our crews and alumni’s enthusiasm for diving into the world of cybersecurity never fail them to become big in this scene.

Capture the Flag (CTF) is one of the alternatives to polishing and enhancing practical cybersecurity skills. Depending on the topic, players can deepen their understanding while playing a game by participating in a competition.

Choo, a prominent player from the renowned team Cincai, did a captivating live walkthrough session to share one of his experiences in solving the CTF challenge by code crashing on August 6, 2023. Throughout the 1-hour session, he skillfully unveiled his methods and ‘code crashed’ his way to solving the quest.

This sharing will definitely illuminate viewers in understanding of methods of solving CTF challenges in the future, especially ‘crashing the codes to victory!’

• https://youtu.be/k90BkXCsAJc