Singapore Co-Innovation Center Ecosystem Gets Results in Joint Hackathon

Singapore’s vibrant ecosystem of innovators and start-ups was on full display this month at a hackathon on wireless cybersecurity hosted by Cisco’s Singapore Co-Innovation Center, along with partners ICE71, Div0 & NUS Enterprise.

Called “Decipher,” the three-day competition challenged 20 start-ups to create a high-impact, real-world application for wireless security — the top priority identified by guests at the Singapore Co-Innovation Center’s grand opening last month.

The winner was Anyhow Hack, with team members Matthew Wong, Sam Yong and Aaron Hau, receiving a 3D printer as the grand prize. Saloman Tan & Lucas Tay from Lao Kui won 2nd place, and Fabian Lim & Low Boon Hean from The Ping of Health won 3rd place.

Said Wong of Anyhow Hack, “Our project was inspired by an article we read about how some guests in home rentals were discovering hidden cameras in their rooms. The idea expanded into Over-The-Air Hunter, a tool for visualising wireless activity and identifying suspected rogue IoT devices. We think that making security easy and accessible for everyone is incredibly important, and we are excited to keep developing products that can achieve this mission. Hackathons are a great way to foster innovation and bring the community together to spur the development of new ideas, and we are grateful to Cisco, ICE71 and Div0 for making this all possible.”

Surfacing such an impactful solution would not have been possible without the collective participation and enthusiasm of our partners. The strong showing from the start-up community underscores Cisco’s co-innovation strategy, driving collaboration with emerging companies with new approaches to challenges in cybersecurity.

The finalists who had the opportunity to pitch their solution the judges included: The Ping of Health (Data Framework), Rogue Team (Rogue AP Detection Tool), Anyhow Hack (Over the Air Hunter (OTAH)), Drop Table (Web Crawling Password Checked), Lao Kui (Git Patch Analysis), SecBuzz Team (Vulnerability Assessment Tools), and Email Shield (Email Security Tools).

The judging panel included:

Joshua McCloud: National Cybersecurity Officer, Cisco

Kerry Singleton: Director of Security Sales in APJC, Cisco

Ben Ng: Regional Cybersecurity Channel Business Manager, Cisco

Zhenkai Liang: Associate Professor, School of Computing, National University of Singapore

Emil Tan: Co-Founder, Division Zero (Div0)

In addition to the competition, Stefan Streichsbier, Founder of Guardrails, oversaw a practical workshop for cybersecurity innovation.

Cisco will continue to focus our momentum on aligning with Singapore’s Digital Economy Framework for Action, leveraging connected Internet of Things technologies and our network infrastructure to co-innovate breakthroughs that make business, society and the planet a better place.

This event marks just the start of how we intend to contribute to Singapore, by leveraging our resources and expertise to co-innovate with academia, start-ups and changemakers.