NIELIT LAUNCHES CYBER KUSHTI 2026 NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY HACKATHON
New Delhi , Aug 16 (TNT) : The National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), has launched CYBER KUSHTI 2026, a national cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence (AI) hackathon aimed at testing and recognising human judgment in cybersecurity assessment.
The hackathon was launched on Saturday by Prof. (Dr.) M. M. Tripathi, Director General, NIELIT and Vice Chancellor, NIELIT Deemed to be University.
It will serve as the official parallel technical track of the 3rd National Conference on Cyber Security, Digital Forensics and Intelligence (NCCDFI 2026).
The competition is being organised in collaboration with the Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC Foundation) under the National Security Database (NSD), with CERT-In as the Knowledge Partner.
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 focused primarily on vulnerability discovery and Capture The Flag challenges, CYBER KUSHTI 2026 will assess participants on their ability to evaluate, prioritise and defend cybersecurity decisions.
Each team will receive an identical Security Assessment Package containing AI-generated findings, static analysis outputs, dependency and secrets scans, architecture documentation, source code and application logs.
The package will include genuine, false and duplicate findings, while some actual vulnerabilities will be deliberately omitted.
Participants will have to prepare a corrected and prioritised security assessment and defend their decisions.
The competition will reward teams not only for identifying genuine vulnerabilities but also for correctly rejecting false findings.
Prof. Tripathi said the ability to distinguish genuine and important security findings from machine-generated output had become a critical skill as AI and automated tools increasingly generate security findings.
He said the competition was designed to provide participants from colleges across the country an equal opportunity to compete, irrespective of access to expensive security tools.
CYBER KUSHTI 2026 will be conducted in three rounds. The first round, The Akhada, will be held online on September 15, with 50 teams advancing to the next stage.
The second round, The Dangal, will be conducted online on September 24, from which 10 finalist teams will be selected.
The final round, The Kesari, will be held in person on October 9 at the Dr Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi. The 10 finalist teams will work under supervision and present and defend their assessments on the main stage of NCCDFI 2026.
During the final, automated analysis of the same assessment material will be displayed alongside the teams’ presentations, enabling participants and delegates to compare machine-generated analysis with human cybersecurity judgment.
An eminent jury jointly constituted by NIELIT and ISAC will assess the finalists.
The jury will comprise senior cybersecurity practitioners and experts from government, industry and academia, including National Cyber Security Scholars recognised under the NSD.
The winning team will receive the title “Cyber Kesari 2026” and the traditional Gada, while the runners-up will be recognised with the titles “Rustam” and “Pahalwan.”
Round 1 participants will receive certificates of participation and individual scorecards, while teams progressing beyond the first round will receive NSD recognition credits. A special award will also recognise the most instructive incorrect submission.
The organisers said all CYBER KUSHTI 2026 activities would be conducted in controlled environments. Participants will neither be directed towards nor permitted to engage with any live system, third party or public infrastructure during the competition.
TNT KS
