The debut participation of the College of Information and Communications Technology (CICT) students from NEUST Atate Campus proved successful as team VERITAS clinched the Regional Championship in HackForGov 2026: Region III, a Capture-the-Flag (CTF) Cybersecurity Competition held on October 20, 2026.

Spearheaded by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the competition gathered 15 teams from 10 participating institutions across Central Luzon to test their technical skills in ethical hacking, information security, and cybersecurity.

NEUST VERITAS is composed of CICT students from Atate Campus, namely Edward Renz Natividad, Renz Andrew Zuniga, Ruselle Largado, and David Miguel Santiago, with Ms. Karelle Ibale as their team coach.

Following VERITAS in the rankings were Holy Angel University’s CyberFoxes Enigma and La Verdad Christian College’s Cyverdarian Rebirths, which placed first and second runners-up, respectively.

In his message to the participants, DICT Nueva Ecija Provincial Head Engr. Conrado Castro Jr. emphasized the importance of building a shared commitment among IT students to strengthen cybersecurity.

“You leave the walls of the venue today, but you started building a common ground, [and] building a stronger battle on cybersecurity,” he said.

With this achievement, VERITAS will represent Region III in the National Finals of the competition, alongside Samuel Binos of Cyverdarian Rebirths, who was named the Top Performer.

Meanwhile, Renz Andrew Zuniga of VERITAS and Francisco Olpindo IV of Holy Angel University were named the region’s second and third top performers in the individual category, respectively.

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