NIELIT launches CYBER KUSHTI 2026 cybersecurity, AI hackathon
New Delhi, August 16
The National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has launched CYBER KUSHTI 2026, a national cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence hackathon designed to test and recognise human judgment in cybersecurity assessment.
Registration opened on August 15 and will remain open until September 10. Participation is free and open to students and independent researchers in teams of three.
Unlike conventional cybersecurity competitions that primarily focus on vulnerability discovery or Capture The Flag (CTF) challenges, CYBER KUSHTI 2026 will assess the ability of participants to evaluate, prioritise and defend cybersecurity decisions.
Each team will receive an identical and deliberately imperfect Security Assessment Package containing AI-generated findings, static analysis outputs, dependency and secrets scans, architecture documentation, source code and application logs.
The package will contain false, duplicated and genuine findings, while some actual vulnerabilities will be deliberately omitted. Teams will have to produce a corrected and prioritised security assessment and defend their decisions.
"Today, machines generate findings faster than any team can read them. What they cannot yet do reliably is tell us which findings are real, which matter most, and what must be fixed first," Prof (Dr) M M Tripathi, Director General, NIELIT, said.
The hackathon will have three rounds. The Akhada will be held online on September 15, with 50 teams advancing. The Dangal will be held online on September 24 and select 10 finalist teams.
The final round, The Kesari, will be held on October 9 at the Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi. An automated analysis of the same assessment material will be displayed alongside the teams' presentations to show where machine-generated analysis and expert human judgment converge and where they differ.
The winning team will be awarded the title "Cyber Kesari 2026", while the runners-up will be recognised as "Rustam" and "Pahalwan."
— ANI
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