CyStar conducted the Malware Analysis Hackathon 2024 from October 19-20 at the Computer Science Department of IIT Madras, with 58 participants from 23 teams competing for the coveted title. The hackathon aimed to spark interest in the Cybersecurity domain, encourage young minds to tackle complex malware analysis problems, and drive innovation.

Preparations for the event began much earlier, with an announcement inviting students, professionals, and individuals from across the country to participate. Registration opened on August 20, 2024. Over 950 applicants applied and went through multiple online rounds before being selected for the final offline event.

The first round was an online quiz testing cybersecurity fundamentals. 66 teams advanced to the next stage, which focused on malware analysis based on the open malware research (OMR) conducted by IIT Madras (https://openmalwareresearch.in/). Ultimately, 23 teams qualified for the offline session.

The offline event was a 24-hour coding marathon, where teams demonstrated their skills in a highly competitive, time-constrained environment. The challenge was to apply AI/ML techniques to malware data, utilizing work from the OMR project. This was hosted as a private Kaggle competition. The winners were:

• Gold Award Winners (scholarships worth INR 1,00,000): Patel Heetkumar Dilipbhai, Bikraj Shrestha, and Suresh Kumar Amalapuram from IIT Hyderabad
• Silver Award Winners (scholarships worth INR 75,000): Ambica Pradhan and Divyam Aggarwal from Amity University, Noida
• Bronze Award Winners (scholarships worth INR 50,000): Leah Tara Paul, Alby Shinoj, and Gifton Paul Immanuel B. from Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences

The competition was evaluated by Mr. Sankaranarayanan B, Dr. Sareena KP, Dr. Arun Balaji, and Dr. Patanjali SLPSK. Prof. Chester, Mr. Rammohan Srinivasan, and Mr. Mathanan Kailas offered valuable motivation and guidance. The conceptualization, planning, and execution of the event were managed by Mr. Chandan N. Varma, Ms. Jeyanthi, Ms. Kalai Selvi, Allan Pais, and M.Tech. students from IIT Madras. The event was sponsored by IDBI Bank (https://www.idbibank.in/) and ISEA (Information Security Education and Awareness) (https://isea.gov.in/) and hosted at the CSE Department, IIT Madras.