PENANG, 2 May 2014 - With 255 points ahead, team N2L from School of Computer Sciences Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) was crowned as the champion for 2014 F-Secure Inter-Varsity IT Security Competition organised by F-Secure and Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) held in Kuala Lumpur on 25 April.

Team N2L, which competed for the first time, comprised of 3 final year students majoring in Computer Science - Lim Yen Sheng (24), Lee Chi Ngan (23) and Law Jia Jge (23).

“We are overjoyed when the result was announced as we did not expect to win,” Lim said.

Lee added, “We are glad to have strategised well throughout the competition by assigning each other to be fully prepared on our core strengths as well as to push our limits to overcome our weaker subject areas”. 

The main aim of the competition was to nurture local talents and encourage more Malaysian undergraduates to venture into the field of IT security through education.

Out of 57 teams that sat for the qualifying test in the F-Secure Security competition, 9 teams qualified and were selected for the semifinal including two teams from USM that is N2L and The Bounty Hunters. These two teams performed very well and made it to the finals with flying colours.

Both N2L and The Bounty Hunters were guided by Dr. Manmeet Mahinderjit Singh (who is the F-Secure USM Coordinator) and Assoc. Prof Dr. Azman Samsudin from the School of Computer Sciences. The School of Computer Sciences management team represented by Dr. Nurul Hashimah was also present on the competition day to support the students.

As champion, N2L walked away with three MacBooks worth RM5,000 each. The 1st runner-up, team The Bounty Hunter received three Microsoft Surface Tablets worth RM2,000 each and the 2nd runner-up, team Xposure won three smart-watches worth RM500 each. In addition, all three participating teams were also presented with 1-year premium F-Secure Internet and Mobile security protection. – Translation: Tan Ewe Hoe/Text: Mohamad Abdullah/Photo: School of Computer Sciences