Amirzhan Kuanysh, a student of the BIS program, demonstrated a high level of professionalism and teamwork, achieving 5th place together with his team SPACE among 25 strongest teams from Kazakhstan and abroad at the prestigious annual cybersecurity hackathon KazHackStan 2025.
Amirzhan Kuanysh (BIS program)
The competition took place on September 17–19, 2025, in Almaty at SADU ARENA as part of the largest cybersecurity conference in Central Asia. This year, the event gathered more than 6,000 participants and over 65 international speakers representing leading companies and organizations in IT and digital security.
The main theme of KazHackStan 2025 was Zero Day. This term refers to vulnerabilities that have not yet been discovered or patched by developers but may already be exploited by attackers. Such threats are especially dangerous for critical sectors — energy, transport, communications, and financial systems. Organizers emphasized: the question is not “if” an attack will happen, but “when.” That is why the skills of young specialists capable of identifying and preventing such risks are valued more than ever today.
The conference program included three thematic days:
• Government & Business Day — discussions on policy and regulation in cybersecurity.
• Secure Development Day — best practices in secure development.
• HackDay — live demonstrations of vulnerabilities, team competitions, and Red Team vs. Blue Team challenges.
KazHackStan 2025 in Almaty
The achievement of team SPACE and Amirzhan Kuanysh is especially valuable given that they successfully carried out offensive operations against seasoned professionals with many years of experience from Kazakhstan, Central Asia, and other countries. The team demonstrated strong analytical thinking, resilience under pressure, and the ability to adapt quickly during the attack on the virtual city CyberKumbez.
We congratulate Amirzhan on this remarkable success and wish him further victories! His achievement is a vivid example of how knowledge gained at university can be applied in practice, enabling students to compete at the global level.