Khalaf Al Habtoor congratulates EIS students ahead of final round of high school cyber–forensics challenge in NYC

Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, Chairman of the Al Habtoor Group today personally congratulated two students from Emirates International School – Meadows in Dubai, who successfully made it to the finals of the High School Cyber-Forensic Challenge in New York City. The students, Mohamed Kayali and Tala Nahhas will compete in the final round of the competition that takes place at New York University’s campus on November 15^th. 

Al Habtoor said, “We are very happy to see students from EIS take part in a global competition and succeed. We look forward to monitoring Mohamed and Tala’s progress as they head to New York City for the final round. We wish them the best of luck.” 

The two students visited the Chairman at the Al Habtoor Group head office on Al Wasl Road along with Leonard Murphy, Principal, High School, Emirates International School – Meadows and their mentor Mr. Whitehead. 

Sixteen year old Mohamed, who is in Year 11, said, “We were really surprised when we heard we had made it to the finals in New York. We were among the youngest students taking part in the competition. We beat 75 teams in the UAE and 500 teams worldwide. The result was overwhelming.” 

Tala, age 15, also in Year 11, added, “When we applied for the competition it was just a bit of fun. I saw the advert on Facebook and asked Mohamed to form a team with me. We didn’t expect to make it to the final.” 

Al Habtoor gave the students each a signed copy of his autobiography, ‘Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor – The Autobiography’. 

The EIS team will compete against 10 finalists selected from around the US. The Cyber-Forensics Challenge is organised by New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). The competition is part of the Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW) hosted by NYU-Poly – New York University’s School of Engineering, Applied Sciences, and Technology. The annual event has been running for the past 10 years for students across the US. 

Leonard Murphy, Principal, High School, EIS – Meadows said, “We are extremely proud of these students. This year's HSF competition has been one of the largest high school cyber security events in the world, and it was the first year that schools in the UAE have participated in the event. Our EIS team was selected from more than 70 participating teams throughout the emirates. This is a great achievement.” 

The Challenge takes place remotely over the Internet. The competition tests the student’s abilities to analyse and inspect various pieces of electronic evidence related to a crime. Teams receive a cyber forensics murder mystery challenge to analyse and solve using cyber forensics tools methods. Challenges involve knowledge of topics such as rootkit detection and analysis, botnet detection and analysis, live system forensics, steganography, file carving and more. 

At the beginning of the challenge, teams are given a disk image as well as other evidence collected by the fictitious ISIS Police investigating a fake murder case. As teams make progress in unraveling the forensic evidence, they discover clues about what happened. The clues reveal evidence both within the disk image and online. 

The Al Habtoor Group owns and runs two schools in the UAE; Emirates International School – Meadows and Emirates International School – Jumeirah.