Story

The story brings an original insight into the world of cyber security through the lens of a sci-fi story

Contestants will become part of a story set in the distant future. In the roles of cyber experts, they will try to defend the space colonization expedition from hacker attacks.

Let’s discover the story bit by bit…
Map of the Central Imperium
Front page of the story
New big things are coming up. Our Horizon News editorial office received an invitation to participate in a secret meeting with Henry Corp. We do not know what this is about yet. However, the importance of this meeting underlines the fact that the meeting will take place outside the planet Earth. We are sending our most experienced reporter Nick Gramo to the meeting.

Find out what will happen…

Join the journey…

Nick Gramo was personally received by Mr. Doug Henry, owner of the giant conglomerate Henry Corp, which includes Horizon News. Apart from an exclusive interview, which would have been quite a journalistic scoop in itself, he learned absolutely crucial information that would kick-start the further progress of humankind. An expedition to distant worlds was about to begin, and Horizon News was offered access not only to exclusive information from the journey but also the opportunity to participate in the expedition itself. But there’s a catch. Nick has to deal with the task Mr. Henry has given him. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for Nick and look at the next part of the story…
In the hotel lounge of the Gar K Nelson space station Nick Gramo meets Amira, Olie and Carol. Top-notch cybersecurity specialists. Over a glass of StellarShock drink, Nick discovers what it takes to work as an ethical hacker for the planet’s top companies. When suddenly there’s an unexpected systems failure. What initially seemed like an inappropriate prank turns out to be a highly sophisticated attack on the station’s central reactor. But thanks to Carol’s quick action, all is not lost. The fight for life begins…
Gar K. Nelson space station is in danger of nuclear reactor explosion. Emergency response systems are failing as they are contaminated with highly intelligent malware. It has not only shut down the entire control network, but is actively preventing physical access to the rector area. Carol has come up with a solution to the problem, but that means getting close to the reactor located beneath the station. We’re down to the last hour before the explosion….
Let us immerse into the last part of the story to find out how it all ended.

Is this the end?

Not even close…

Now you know the story, let’s solve Summer quizzes.

In the story, you could find out how it all started. It can be seen that the whole mission is starting to have a pretty dramatic course. Not everyone wants our efforts. However, the first part had a happy ending. Teamwork has proven to be the key to success. Our newcomer to cyber security, Nick, has also received recognition from the experts who will accompany the colonization expedition. In a short time, a friendly bond had formed between Amira, Oliver, Caroline, and Nick, and now they flew together to the fleet marshalling yard, somewhere on the edge of the solar system. He shortens his journey by talking to the captain of the ship, who comes from somewhere in Central Europe. When he found out which passengers he was carrying, he lent them his quiz book, which hides something from the history of his country. Here comes the first quiz..

Please fill quiz solution before September 10th 2021.

The first quiz was simple. Amira gladly left it to Nick to solve, and watched slyly how quickly he could handle it. The second quiz is available to you now. The original of the entire manuscript can be viewed and obtained on the following pages: Cipher Manuscript

Please fill quiz solution before September 10th 2021.

The second quiz bothered the group far more. Although they solved the edited text of the manuscript quickly, when they tried to decipher the original from the university archive, they failed. At one point, Oliver deployed the resources of their corporate AI. But at a time when it was clear that the solution was not trivial and was consuming more and more system resources, he stopped solving it. He did not want to risk the hostility of the leadership. Waiting for quiz number 3. A sample from this manuscript, which you will use to solve the problem, can be obtained here: 

Please fill quiz solution before September 10th 2021.

Cipher number 3 thrilled everyone. What at first glance looked like a historical dictionary turned out to be something completely different. Beautifully and cleverly designed. But let’s go to quiz number 4..

Please fill quiz solution before September 10th 2021.

Here comes the Summer quiz number 5…

Karel Hynek Mácha

Please fill quiz solution before September 10th 2021.

The Summer quiz number 6…
Estabishment of Czechoslovakia and the MAFFIE

Please fill quiz solution before September 10th 2021.

Next Quiz on 10th September 2021
The introductory short story was written for ECSC2021 by the Czech science fiction writer Jan Kotouč

author of novels from the genre of science fiction and alternative history The books were published in Czech as well as in English translation The story takes place within the fictional world of the Central Empire, as does his successful series of books. In addition to writing, he also teaches at university and is a popular lecturer at a number of sci-fi fans.

http://jan-kotouc.cz/en/english/

This project has been supported
by the European Union

The organizers of the European Cyber ​​Security Challenge 2021 in the Czech Republic are the AFCEA—Czech chapter and ENISA.