MINERVA TASK FORCE WINS CYBER 9/12 STRATEGY CHALLENGE

 

This year we participated in the Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge. The yearly event, which is normally hosted in the BT tower but was virtual this year, presents competitors with a fictional scenario that requires them to propose policy options to judges playing the role of the Prime Minister’s office. The competition aims to provide participants with a better understanding of the technical, societal and strategic implications of cyber security and conflict. We represented the CDT under the team name of “Minerva Task Force''. Given our multidisciplinary shared knowledge and that we were going to be taking part in a strategic challenge, we thought the name of the Roman goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare worked well. We are also an all female team, and so the name of a Roman goddess seemed fitting. 

Stephanie and Sofia had come across the competition in the past, and were keen to take part this year having heard great reviews from past participants. They asked the rest of the 2020 cohort to see who would be interested in joining, and were soon joined by Kyra and Emma. Between the four of us, we had a diverse range of knowledge. Initially we divided ourselves between non-technical and technical subjects, but by the end of the competition we were all contributing ideas to areas beyond our comfort zone. The final member of our team was our coach Nick. Having participated a few years ago in the competition himself, he provided us with great advice, insights and support throughout the challenge. 

Keeping in theme with the pandemic, this year’s fictional scenario centred around threats to the ICU oxygen systems, the vaccine supply chain, and disinformation on social media. The diversity of threats required us to do some widespread research to identify who and what would be affected should the threats materialise. As there was not enough intelligence to assess which of the threats we would need to prioritise, in the first round we opted to create policy options aimed at preparing the country to try to mitigate the impact of some of the more harmful threats. Ultimately our aim was to ensure the pandemic recovery was not affected by the developing situation. 

We were delighted to find out at the end of the first day of the competition that we had not only made it through to the semi-finals, but that we had also been awarded a prize for most creative policy response. We were therefore eager to receive the second intelligence pack and start working on the next briefing. After we all ate pancakes (it happened to be shrove Tuesday), we set out to assess the developments in the scenario and start preparing policy options. It was a very long night (particularly for Kyra who decided to not go to sleep), but by 8 am the next morning we had a brief ready and were looking forward to presenting our policy options to the judges.  

Although lacking in sleep, the second round of presentations went well and we received some great feedback from the judges with one judge saying our team was a Powerhouse! A couple hours later, the finalists were announced and we were excited to be chosen as one of the top three teams who would be moving forward to the final round.

The last round was very challenging as we had to process new intelligence and prepare a policy response, alongside a 10 minute oral brief all in 20 minutes! We drew from our second policy brief to address the new developments we encountered. The preparation time went very quickly and we were straight into presenting for the judges. We were all nervous to be presenting in front of the other competitors and the questions we received were certainly challenging. With such a limited and pressured time to prepare, it was only natural that once we had presented we were quite critical with our performance. However, looking back at that moment we now realise it was a great learning experience for all of us to have to think quickly on our feet and be prepared to answer difficult questions. 

Being announced winners of the competition was a surprise! We frantically messaged each other in disbelief and excitement (See below). We were confident after our first two rounds, and felt happy with the performances we had given. But the last round had made us a little less confident- although Stephanie was convinced we would win all along. Perhaps it was Stephanie’s optimism that helped us all when we gave that last briefing.

Reaction to results announcement

Of course we would have liked to have been able to meet all the other competitors and judges in person but the virtual competition was still a great experience and we learnt a lot from the event. Throughout the competition, professionals from around the world gave talks that really gave us an insight into different roles within cyber security. Each round required pooling our combined expertise from our wide range of backgrounds which helped us understand the complexity that policymakers face when solving cyber security issues and the need for multidisciplinarity. Presenting our policy responses to a team of experienced judges helped us build our briefing skills. Finally, the competition was a great way for us to get to know each other better as a team. We all had a lot of fun whilst preparing and having conversations both about cyber and much more.

One of the biggest lessons we have learned is how to use our individual strengths in the cyber security sector. Although our course allows us to learn about both the technical and non-technical aspects of cyber security, being participants in the competition empowered us to broaden our understanding of policy responses to cyber attacks. Today, we constantly ask ourselves what the implications of the real world would be in our research on cyber security issues. Being in a multidisciplinary centre has definitely opened our eyes to the collaboration needed to tackle everyday security, but the competition has really reinforced this idea. The challenges set by the Cyber 9/12 competition illustrate that a high level of cooperation between private, public, and civil society is needed to address daily cyber security threats.

We are now looking forward to attending the Black Hat Conference in November, and receiving our collection of cyber security books (both part of our first place prize). And since we didn’t get to travel this time, you might see us competing next year in Geneva. 

If you want to take part in the competition next year, we would definitely encourage you to participate. A degree in computer science is not a prerequisite to enter the competition, as you can see from our background, some of us are non-technical. Take the step, and we are sure that you will learn a lot from the process, as we have done.

Sofia Liemann Escobar (War Studies & International Security), Stephanie Itimi (Economics), Kyra Mozley (Computer Science), & Emma Smith (Mathematics)