Three students from the University of the Philippines-Diliman (UPD) are advancing to the final phase of an international conference hosted by Kaspersky Lab, a secure content and threat management solutions developer.
Computer science students Adelen Victoria Festin, Camille Salazar and Flor Maria Carmeli Sison bagged third place in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa Cup of the annual conference CyberSecurity for the Next Generation (CSNG). They won a sum of 750 USD for their study Communect: Secure Community Connection Using OpenBTS as an Alternative Base Station, which was presented at the regional event held at the Korea University in Seoul, South Korea last March 11 to 13.
Communect features a specially designed applications for the centralization of information dissemination like community alets and inter-agency communication. Moreover, it can also be utilized as an emergency response tool for disaster risk management activities, such as emergency message monitory and survivor recording.
“Originally, the idea of Communect is about its broadcasting features and focused on security. However, when the Bohol earthquake and the typhoon Yolanda happened, (the group) gradually shifted to the idea of a secure communication base station that can also be used in emergency situations and in rural communities without compromising security,” the UPD students said.
The group is under the advisory of Dr. Susan Pancho-Festin, founder of UP Diliman’s Computer Security Group, one of the research groups of the Department of Computer Science that focuses on the enhancement of the security of enterprise and mobile applications through research on cryptographic algorithms, message protocols and the latest developments in cryptographic attacks.
“A testament to the brilliance of Asian students in the field of cybersecurity is the quality of these research papers that surely offers significant use,” Kaspersky Lab Southeast Asia channel sales director Jimmy Fong said. “Kaspersky Lab will continue to equip these young minds with the right knowledge to help them develop more and even greater ideas for cybersecurity. I hope that the Asian winners will excel in the world finals,” he added.
The Philippines has two other qualified papers that were also submitted by UPD students. Teammates Dan Antonio Reyes, John Smith Paraggua and Ray Torres introduced the Binary Login using Android Device or what they call BLADE System, an easy-to-deploy solution using a two-factor authentication system.