BITSkrieg cybersecurity team from BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus has secured 3^rd place at the beginner category in HackTheon Sejong 2026 International Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition, held in Sejong, Republic of Korea.

HackTheon Sejong is one of the world's premier university cybersecurity competitions, jointly organized by the Sejong City Government and the National Intelligence Service (NIS) of the Republic of Korea. The competition is open to undergraduate students worldwide and features two divisions Advanced and Beginner, where participants compete by solving challenging Capture-the-Flag (CTF) problems across domains such as binary exploitation, reverse engineering, web security, cryptography, digital forensics, hardware security, and incident response.

Representing BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, BITSkrieg was the only Indian team to secure a prize at the competition. The team earned the Excellence Prize in the Beginner Category, finishing 3^rd overall in the beginner category and receiving a cash award of ₩1,000,000. The achievement places BITSkrieg among the top-performing university cybersecurity teams at one of the world's most competitive international collegiate CTF events.

The team representing BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus comprised:

• Raghav Maheshwari and Kanishk Rai – 4^th year Computer Science
• Shreya Rai – 4^th year Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE)
• Aditya Talwar and Adrija Singh – 3^rd year lectrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE)
• Nikhil G Kumar – 3^rd year Mathematics and Computing Engineering (MnCE)
• Siddharth Nautiyal – 3^rd year BIO + Env

This achievement reflects BITSkrieg's continued excellence in competitive cybersecurity and its commitment to fostering a strong technical culture at BITS Goa. Over the years, the club has consistently represented the institute at prestigious national and international Capture-the-Flag (CTF) competitions, showcasing the talent and dedication of its students on the global stage.

The 2026 edition attracted more than 1,000 teams from over 120 countries during the online preliminary round. Following a rigorous qualification process, only the top 40 teams advanced to the onsite finals held at the Government Sejong Convention Center, comprising 20 South Korean and 20 international teams.

The Institute congratulates the entire team on this remarkable accomplishment and wishes them continued success in their future endeavors.