Code-breaking competition giving students the chance to test their computer skills against 4 UK university Computer Science Departments

Can you crack it to prove your university beats the rest?

Are you ready to take part in a unique code-breaking tournament that pitches UK Computer Science Departments against each other to see who will be crowned the first ever University Cipher Champion?

Four Computer Science department and three others will each develop their own cipher – a puzzle based on encrypted messages – and you will be challenged to break them.

The four-week virtual tournament will start on Monday 21st January with a new cipher released each week. Each university is being pitted against each other to see has the best code-breaking skills of them all!

https://cybersecuritychallenge.org.uk/universitycipherchallenge.php

*Sssssh! If you are successful in cracking a code, please don’t post online how you managed it – in the spirit of healthy competition we want to make sure everyone has a fair turn!

The dates for the ciphers are as follows:

•    University of Bristol (Available to play: Mon 21 Jan  – Sunday 27 Jan)
•    University of Birmingham (Available to play:  Mon 28 Jan  – Sunday 3 Feb)
•    UCL (Available to play: Mon 4 Feb – Sunday 10 Feb)
•    Edinburgh Napier University (Available to play: Mon 11 Feb – Sunday 17 Feb)

How do I play?

•    First of all make sure you are registered with the Challenge using your university email – https://cybersecuritychallenge.org.uk/registration/
•    Once registered you will see there is an option to download the latest University cipher
•    If you successfully crack a code, send your answers and how you cracked it to: universitycipher@cybersecuritychallenge.org.uk by the deadline for each challenge*

Get involved over social media

•    Show your support for your university by tweeting us @cyberchallenge with the hashtag #4x4Cipher’
•    Follow and tweet universities taking part @uclnews , @EdinburghNapier , @BirminghamUni, @Bristoluni

RS